Fundamentals of Computer Systems: Memory Technologies

The function of the memory unit is to store programs and data.

RAM and ROM.

<p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>8 bits.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>1024 bytes.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>1024 kilobytes.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>4 bits.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>16 bits.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Cache memory is a supplementary memory system that temporarily stores frequently used instructions and data for quicker processing by the CPU.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Virtual memory is a common technique used in a computer's operating system (OS) that enables a computer to compensate for physical memory shortages by temporarily transferring data from RAM to disk storage.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A few tens of megabytes.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The CPU accesses main memory by placing an address on the memory bus, and then the main memory retrieves the data at that address and places it back on the bus. Finally, the CPU reads the data from the bus and copies it into a register.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Arithmetic Logic Unit (ALU).</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The I/O bridge helps connect the CPU and main memory to I/O devices.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Disks store data and instructions, providing secondary storage for long-term data retention.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Two sides or surfaces.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The rotating spindle spins the platter at a fixed rotational rate.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Revolutions Per Minute.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Between 5,400 and 15,000 revolutions per minute (RPM).</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Tracks are concentric rings on a disk surface.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Sectors are partitions of a track that contain a specific number of data bits.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>512 bytes.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Gaps between sectors store formatting bits that identify sectors.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The read/write head reads and writes bits stored on the magnetic surface of a disk.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A seek is the mechanical movement of the read/write head over a disk surface.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>By moving the arm radially, the disk drive can position the read/write head over any track.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Each disk surface would have a separate read/write head.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The capacity of disk is calculated by multiplying the number of bytes per sector, average number of sectors per track, number of tracks per surface, number of surfaces per platter, and number of platters.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Disk capacity is usually expressed in units of gigabytes (GB) or terabytes (TB).</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The capacity of the disk would be 2,304,000,000,000 bytes or 2.304 TB.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The CPU writes a command, logical block number, and destination memory address to the memory-mapped address associated with the disk.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The disk controller notifies the CPU by sending an interrupt signal.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>An SSD package plugs into a standard disk slot on the I/O bus.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The two components of an SSD package are flash memory chips and a flash translation layer.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The flash translation layer translates requests for logical blocks into accesses of the underlying physical device.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A page.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A block is a collection of pages in flash memory.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>False</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A block can handle roughly 100,000 write cycles before it wears out.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>True</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Random writes are slower because writing to flash memory requires the whole block to be erased first before writing the new data.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>A memory hierarchy is a structured system of memory components with different speeds, costs, capacities, and access times, arranged to improve performance and make the most of available resources.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The different levels of memory are organized in a pyramid-like structure, with the fastest and most expensive memory at the top and the slowest and cheapest memory at the bottom.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>CPU registers hold words retrieved from cache memory.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>The L1 cache holds cache lines retrieved from the L2 cache.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Local secondary storage (local disks) holds disk blocks retrieved from local disks.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Remote secondary storage (distributed file systems or web servers) holds files retrieved from disks on remote network servers.</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>All of the above</p> Signup and view all the answers

<p>Topics for further reading include: Characteristics of Random Access Memory (RAM), DRAM structure and operations, Core i7 Memory Module, Enhanced DRAMS, Hard Disk Dynamics, rotational latency, access time, and transfer time.</p> Signup and view all the answers