Various storage devices used by an operating system can be arranged as follows in increasing order of accessing speed :
Magnetic tapes → optical disks → magnetic disks → electronic disks → main memory → cache → registers
In the storage hierarchy, devices closer to the CPU are faster, smaller and costlier per bit; devices farther away are slower, larger and cheaper.
Slowest first: magnetic tape is accessed sequentially, so it is the slowest. Optical disks (CD/DVD) have slow seek and rotation and are slower than magnetic hard disks. Electronic disks (RAM disks / solid-state storage) have no moving parts, so they are faster than magnetic disks.
All of these secondary devices are slower than main memory; cache is faster than main memory, and the CPU registers are the fastest storage of all.
So the increasing order of speed is tape → optical disk → magnetic disk → electronic disk → main memory → cache → registers. Any order that places optical disks above magnetic disks, or electronic disks below a mechanical disk, breaks the hierarchy.
Hence, the answer is Magnetic tapes → optical disks → magnetic disks → electronic disks → main memory → cache → registers.
Similar Questions
Find the correct sequence of the storage device in descending order based on their access time.
(A) Registers
(B) Magnetic Disk
(C) Magnetic Tapes
(D) Main memory
(E) Optical Disk
Choose the correct answer from the options given below :
Arrange the following in the increasing order with respect to access time.
A. Solid State Drive
B. Optical Disks
C. DRAMs
D. SRAMs
E. Registers
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Which of the following statement is/are True?
A. The processor has direct access to both primary and secondary memory
B. Primary memory stores the active instructions and data for the program being executed on the process
C. Secondary memory is used as a backup memory
D. Memory system is implemented on a single level memory
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Important Questions from Memory Hierarchy
A computer has a memory hierarchy consisting of two-level cache (L1 and L2) and a main memory. If the processor needs to access data from memory, it first looks into L1 cache. If the data is not found in L1 cache, it goes to L2 cache. If it fails to get the data from L2 cache, it goes to main memory, where the data is definitely available. Hit rates and access times of various memory units are shown in the figure. The average memory access time in nanoseconds (ns) is ________. (rounded off to two decimal places)
- Match List I with List II
List I List II A. Address Space I. Associative Mapping B. Memory Space II. Logical address C. Cache Memory III. physical address D. Segmented Program IV. Virtual address
Choose the correct answer from the options given below: - What unit of memory is largest out of the following?
Related to computers, what is 'Wetware'?
____ number of lines are required to select __________ memory locations.
