TABLE OF CONTENTS

Memory Hierarchy
Main Memory
Associative Memory
Cache Memory
Virtual Memory
Memory Management Hardware

Introduction

-A memory - a data byte, or a word, or a double word, or

a quad word may be accessed from or at all addressable
locations with a similar process would be used to access
from all locations and there is would be equal access time
for a read or for a write that is independent of a memory
address location. This mode differentiates from another
model called serial access mode

i.

Memory Hierarchy

PYRAMID TABLE.

Hierarchical Memory Organization

Register are the faster.

Cache is the fastest

Memory(SRAM).

DRAM makes good main

memory.

Disk is best for the

rest (majority).

How is the Hierarchy Managed?

registers

memory

by compiler (or programmer?) .

cache

main memory

by the cache controller hardware.

main memory

disks

by the operating system (virtual memory).

virtual to physical address mapping assisted by
the hardware
(TLB).
by the programmer (files).

ii.

MAIN MEMORY

Main memory organization

The main memory stores instructions and data of the currently executed programs. Usually
it is a random access memory RAM with reads and writes available. Sometimes, its part can
be implemented as the fixed memory or read-only memory ROM.
A main memory can be built of a single or many memory modules. A main memory
module is built of an address decoder and a set of memory locations. The locations store
words of bits of data assigned to consecutive addresses. The word can contain any, but fixed
for a given computer, number of bits. There can be several word formats available in the
same computer. Usually, the words are so defined as to contain an integer number of bytes.
To store one bit of information, a bit cell is used in main memory. To read or write a word,
an access has to be organized to a sequence of bit cells. The memory word length in
contemporary computers can be a single byte or many bytes.
Organization structures of main memories can be divided, according to the circuit that
selects memory locations, into the following types:

Main memory with linear selection (with a single address decoder)

Main memory with two-dimensional selection (with two address decoders)

Main memory with linear selection of multiple words (with a single address
decoder and a selector)

Main memory with linear selection

The principle of linear selection of memory locations

Main memory module with linear selection

Main memory with two-dimensional selection

The principle of two-dimensional selection of memory locations

Memory module with a two-dimensional selection of memory locations

Main memory with linear selection of multiple words

Main memory with linear selection of multiple words

iii. Associative memory

Associative memory is found on a computer hard drive and used only in
specific high-speed searching applications. Most computer memory known as
random access memory, or RAM, works through the computer user providing
a memory address and then the RAM will return whatever data is stored at
that memory address. However, CAM works through the computer user
providing a data word and then searching throughout the entire computer
memory to see if the word is there. If the computer finds the data word then
it offers a list of all of the storage addresses where the word was found for
the user.
CAM is faster than RAM in almost every search application, but many people
stick with RAM for their computers because a computer with CAM is more
expensive than RAM. The reason for the price increase for CAM computers is
because with CAM computers, each cell has to have the full storage
capability and logic circuits that can match content with external argument.
Associative memory computers are best for users that require searches to
take place quickly and whose searches are critical for job performance on the
machine.

Circuit of associative memory.

iv. Cache Memory

Types/Levels of Cache Memory
A computer can have several different levels of cache memory. The level
numbers refers to distance from CPU where Level 1 is the closest. All levels
of cache memory are faster than RAM. The cache closest to CPU is always
faster but generally costs more and stores less data then other level of
cache.

The following are the deferent levels of Cache Memory.

Level 1 (L1) Cache

It is also called primary or internal cache. It is built directly into the processor
chip. It has small capacity from 8 Km to 128 Kb.

Level 2 (L2) Cache

It is slower than L1 cache. Its storage capacity is more, i-e. From 64 Kb to 16
MB. The current processors contain advanced transfer cache on processor
chip that is a type of L2 cache. The common size of this cache is from 512 kb
to 8 Mb.

Level 3 (L3) Cache

This cache is separate from processor chip on the motherboard. It exists on
the computer that uses L2 advanced transfer cache. It is slower than L1 and
L2 cache. The personal computer often has up to 8 MB of L3 cache.

v.

Virtual Memory

A cache stores a subset of the addresss space of RAM. An address space is the set of valid
addresses. Thus, for each address in cache, there is a corresponding address in RAM. This subset
of addresses (and corresponding copy of data) changes over time, based on the behavior of your
program.
Cache is used to keep the most commonly used sections of RAM in the cache, where it can be
accessed quickly. This is necessary because CPU speeds increase much faster than speed of
memory access. If we could access RAM at 3 GHz, there wouldn't be any need for cache,
because RAM could keep up. Because it can't keep up, we use cache.
What if we wanted more RAM than we had available. For example, we might have 1 M of
RAM, what if we wanted 10 M? How could we manage?
One way to extend the amount of memory accessible by a program is to use disk. Thus, we can
use 10 Megs of disk space. At any time, only 1 Meg resides in RAM.
In effect, RAM acts like cache for disk.
This idea of extending memory is called virtual memory. It's called "virtual" only because it's not
RAM. It doesn't mean it's fake.
The real problem with disk is that it's really, really slow to access. If registers can be accessed in
1 nanosecond, and cache in 5 ns and RAM in about 100 ns, then disk is accessed in fractions of
seconds. It can be a million times slower to access disk than a register.
The advantage of disk is it's easy to get lots of disk space for a small cost.

Still, becaues disk is so slow to access, we want to avoid accessing disk unnecessarily.

vi. Memory Management Hardware

A memory management system is a collection of hardware and software
procedures for managing various programs (effect of multiprogramming
support) residing in memory.Basic components of memory management unit
(MMU) are:
o

A facility for dynamic storage relocation that maps logical memory

references into physical memory addresses.

A provision for sharing common programs by multiple users.

Protection of information against unauthorized access.

The dynamic storage relocation hardware is a mapping process similar to

paging system.
Segment:It is more convenient to divide programs and data into logical
parts called segments despite/fixed-size pages. A segment is a set of
logically related instructions or data elements. Segments may be generated
by the programmer or by OS.
Examples are:a subroutine, an array of data, a table of symbols or users
program.
Logical Address:The address generated by the segmented program is
called alogical address.This is similar to virtual address except that logical
address space is associated with variable-length segments rather than fixedlength pages.
Segment Page Mapping

The length of each segment is allowed to grow and contract according to the
needs of the program being executed. One way of specifying the length of a
segment is by associating with it a number of equal-sized pages.
Consider the diagram below:

fig: Logical to physical address mapping

Logical address = Segment+page+Word
Where segment specifies segment number,page field specifies page within
the segment and word field specifies specific word within the page.
Here, mapping of logical address to physical address is done by using two
tables:segment and page table. The entry in the segment table is a pointer
address for the page table base,which is then added to page number(given
in logical address). The sum point to some entry in page table and content of
that page is the address of physical block. The concatenation of block field
with the word field produces the final physical mapped address.

fig.Associative memory Translation Look-aside Buffer(TLB)

This is a fast associative memory (TLB) and holds most recently referenced
entries. (Alternatively,we could store above two tables:segment table and
page table , in two separate small memories which really increases the CPU
access time).