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Some Basic Concepts:

COMPUTER ORGANIZATION • The processor of a computer can usually process
AND ARCHITECTURE instructions and data faster than they can be fetched
from a reasonably priced memory unit.
(18EC35)
• The memory cycle time, then, is the bottleneck in the
Module 4 system.

Memory Systems
By
Keith R Fernandes
Asst. Professor
Dept. of ECE, SJEC Mangaluru
• One way to reduce the memory access time is to use
a Cache Memory.
• This is a small, fast memory that is inserted between
the larger, slower main memory and the processor.
• It holds the currently active segments of a program
and their data.

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Some Basic Concepts: Some Basic Concepts:

• Cache Memory: • Virtual Memory is another important concept related
to memory organization.
• Addresses generated by the processor directly
specify physical locations in the memory may not be
always true.
• Data may be stored in physical memory locations
that have addresses different from those specified by
the program.
• The memory control circuitry translates the address
specified by the program into an address that can be
used to access the physical memory.

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Some Basic Concepts: Some Basic Concepts:

• An address generated by the processor is referred to
as a Virtual or Logical Address.
• The virtual address space is mapped onto the
physical memory where data are actually stored.
• The mapping function is implemented by a special
memory control circuit, often called the Memory
Management Unit.

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Some Basic Concepts: Some Basic Concepts:

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Some Basic Concepts: Some Basic Concepts:

• Virtual memory is used to increase the apparent size
of the physical memory.
• Data are addressed in a virtual address space that can
be as large as the addressing capability of the
processor.
• But at any given time, only the active portion of this
space is mapped onto locations in the physical
memory.
• The remaining virtual addresses are mapped onto the
bulk storage devices used, which are usually
magnetic disks.

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Some Basic Concepts: Some Basic Concepts:

• As the active portion of the virtual address space • This page displaces some page in the memory that is
changes during program execution, the memory currently inactive.
management unit changes the mapping function and • Because of the time required to move pages between
transfers data between the disk and the memory. the disk and the memory, there is a speed
• Thus, during every memory cycle, an address- degradation if pages are moved frequently.
processing mechanism determines whether the
addressed information is in the physical memory
unit.
• If it is, then the proper word is accessed and
execution proceeds.
• If it is not, a page of words containing the desired
word is transferred from the disk to the memory.

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