What is Memory Hierarchy?
Simply put, memory hierarchy is the arrangement of storage within a computer. Think of it like a pyramid. The fastest memory is at the top—and also the most scarce. Descending down, the memory gets slower, but more plentiful. The advantage of this system is that while a small number of oft-used functions can be done quickly, a large number of functions may also be accessed at a somewhat slower rate, which is very cost effective. The memory at the top of this pyramid is referred to as registers, or processor registers. These are built within the CPU to speed up the more immediate processes, requiring only a single CPU cycle to process. They only run a few hundred bytes in size, however, they can’t do too much at once. More processor registers are very expensive, but if the system will be running multiple functions at once and can’t afford to be slow, then investing in this might be a good idea. Below these processor registers in the memory hierarchy is the cache memory. There are usuall
