What’s Cache Memory Again??
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010We’ve explained this before, but it can be confusing so I figured I’d remind us all. Computers operate at very rapid speeds. While the computer can operate at these speeds, it has got to get the information and program to execute from someplace. What occurs is the information and program is loaded from the hard drive into computer memory or RAM. From RAM it is loaded into cache RAM and from there it is executed by the CPU. Hard drives are extraordinarily slow compared with the CPU, almost as slow as smoking ashton cigars. RAM is much faster than a hard disk drive, but still 4 to 5 times slower than your CPU. RAM is always wiped out if the power goes off. Cache RAM is very fast, it is capable of delivering information at or near the speed of the CPU. Cache RAM and normal RAM are awfully similar in the way they work. Cache is just extremely fast, and costly. That is the reason why there’s so little of cache RAM available, it is pricey. In order to reduce the cost of PCs, hard drives are used to store huge amounts of information because they are so cheap, some drives cost less than a penny for a megabyte of storage. Cache RAM is much more expensive. This is over a hundred times more expensive than a hard drives. Cache RAM is lots more pricey than regular RAM memory. In order to reduce the cost of pc, engineers have designed controllers that load information and instructions from the hard drive when they might be required into RAM. When they’re not needed in RAM, something else is loaded. Then, as the computer runs, whatever is required for that time is loaded into cache. When the controller does a pretty good job at processing what is required, the computer will operate at close to its full speed. When the controllers do not do a good job, things will slow down while the CPU waits for information to be loaded from the hard drive to RAM, and then into the cache before it can continue. If the cache is slower than your CPU, your personal computer will be slow. But if it is quicker, your personal computer will not speed up. So you wish to ensure the cache is fast enough for your computer, but getting faster cache memory is a waste of money. The quantity of cache memory also is affecting the speed of your computer. Generally, the more cache, the speedier your personal computer will go, so you will want to ensure your PC has as much cache RAM as it can handle.