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I'm dumbfounded with this matter. As far as my knowledge goes there is volatile and non-volatile memory. The question that has been given to me is to rate on a scale of 1 to 4 the volatility of each of these types of memory.

The types of memory outlined here are DRAM, CPU Cache, CPU Registers and Secondary Storage. I'm aware that DRAM, Cache and Registers are very much volatile, with some exceptions in the case of Registers. So far my answer goes as follows:

  1. DRAM
  2. Cache
  3. Registers
  4. Secondary Storage

Would this be considered a correct solution? I've researched wide and far and there is not much data on how volatile these types of memory are.

George
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1 Answers1

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The closer to the core the memory is the more the pressure is on the manufacturers to optimize for speed. Volatility can be easily solved with refresh cycles with the cost of some extra energy consumption (nobody cares, everybody wants speeeeed).

Since there's a trade-off between speed and permanence, memory units closer to the core are more volatile.

So the order is: registers, cache, DRAM, secondary storage.

Karoly Horvath
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  • Ah, that would make a lot of sense. I assumed that because DRAM needs to be refreshed so often it would be considered most volatile but I didn't take into consideration how often the cache and registers are accessed. Thank you very much for shedding some light on this topic, much appreciated! – George Apr 18 '15 at 08:58