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The Memory Hierarchy

This video presents the same text shown beside it, spoken and on screen. It adds nothing the text does not say.

State

No single memory technology excels at speed, size, cost, and permanence at once — so systems layer several technologies, fastest and smallest nearest the processor, each level backing the one above.

Show

A librarian's desk, the open stacks, and the archive serve one reader at three speeds.

Watch for

The hierarchy is a treaty among imperfect materials.