Memory organization is an aspect of computer architecture that is concerned with the storage and transfer of data and programs.
There are several ways to organise
memories
Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is Encoding (memory), encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future Action (philosophy), action. I ...
with respect to the way they are connected to the
cache:
# one-word-wide memory organisation
# wide memory organisation
#
interleaved memory organisation
# independent memory organisation
One-word-wide
The memory is one
word
A word is a basic element of language that carries semantics, meaning, can be used on its own, and is uninterruptible. Despite the fact that language speakers often have an intuitive grasp of what a word is, there is no consensus among linguist ...
wide and connected via a one-word-wide
bus to the cache.
Wide
The memory is more than one word wide (usually four words wide) and connected by an equally wide bus to the low level cache (which is also wide). From the cache multiple busses of one word wide go to a
MUX which selects the correct bus to connect to the high level cache.
Interleaved
There are several memory banks which are one word wide, and one word wide bus. There is some logic in the memory that selects the correct bank to use when the memory gets accessed by the cache.
Memory interleaving is a way to distribute individual addresses over memory modules. Its aim is to keep the most of modules busy as computations proceed. With memory interleaving, the low-order ''k'' bits of the memory address generally specify the module on several buses.
See also
*
Cache hierarchy
*
Memory hierarchy
In computer architecture, the memory hierarchy separates computer storage into a hierarchy based on response time. Since response time, complexity, and capacity are related, the levels may also be distinguished by their performance and contr ...
*
Memory geometry
In the design of modern computers, memory geometry describes the internal structure of random-access memory. Memory geometry is of concern to consumers upgrading their computers, since older memory controllers may not be compatible with later pr ...
References
Computer memory
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