Ulrich Drepper
Abstract,As CPU cores become both faster and more numerous, the limiting factor for most programs is now, and will be for some time, memory access. Hardware designers have come up with ever more sophisticated memory handling and acceleration techniquesâ€“such as CPU cachesâ€“but these cannot work optimally without some help from the programmer. Unfortunately, neither the structure nor the cost of using the memory subsystem of a computer or the caches on CPUs is well understood by most programmers. This paper explains the structure of memory subsystems in use on modern commodity hardware, illustrating why CPU caches were developed, how they work, and what programs should do to achieve optimal performance by utilizing them.
Computer Science,Programming,Computer Science,Computers,Science,Computer Science,Science,Technology,Computer Science,Software
What Every Programmer Should Know About Memory