What is the memory system in a computer system?

The memory system refers to a system in a computer consisting of various storage devices that store programs and data, control components, and devices (hardware) and algorithms (software) that manage information scheduling. The storage system provides the ability to write and read information (programs and data) required for computer work, and realizes the computer's information memory function. The hierarchical structure of the storage system can be divided into five levels: register group, cache cache, main memory, virtual memory and external memory.

The operating environment of this tutorial: Windows 7 system, Dell G3 computer.

The memory system in a computer system refers to a system in a computer that consists of various storage devices that store programs and data, control components, and devices (hardware) and algorithms (software) that manage information scheduling.

The storage system is one of the important components of the computer. The storage system provides the ability to write and read information (programs and data) required for computer work, and realizes the computer's information memory function. Modern computer systems often use a multi-level storage architecture of registers, cache, main memory, and external memory.

The core of the computer storage system is the memory. The memory is an essential memory device in the computer and is used to store programs and data.

Internal memory (referred to as memory) mainly stores the programs and data required for the current work of the computer, including cache memory (Cache, referred to as cache) and main memory. At present, memory is mainly composed of semiconductor memory. External memory (referred to as external memory) mainly has three implementation methods: magnetic memory, optical memory and semiconductor memory. The storage media include hard disks, optical disks, tapes and mobile memories.

The multi-level storage architecture of modern computer systems is as shown in Figure 6-1. The top is closer to the CPU, the faster the memory, the smaller the capacity, and the higher the price per bit. Adopting this organizational method can better solve the contradiction between storage capacity, speed and cost, providing a layer of memory that is logically equivalent to the cheapest in terms of price and capacity, and the access speed is close to the fastest in the storage system. layer memory.

The hierarchical structure of the storage system

The hierarchical structure of the storage system can be divided into 5 levels: register group, cache Cache, main memory, virtual memory and external memory.

• Among them, the register group is always inside the CPU, and the programmer can access it through the register name. There is no bus operation and the access speed is the fastest;

• The remaining 4 levels are all outside the CPU. Cache and main memory constitute an internal storage system. Programmers access storage units through bus addressing, and the access speed is worse than registers; virtual memory is transparent to programmers; the external storage system has a large capacity , data needs to be exchanged with the CPU through the I/O interface, and the access speed is the slowest.

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