Preview
IB DP Computer Science — A1 Computer fundamentals — Computer hardware and operation | SL | A1.1.4
📋 What You Will Learn
- Explain the purpose of RAM, ROM, cache (L1, L2, L3) and registers
- Describe the memory hierarchy and the speed–size–cost trade-off behind it
- Explain how the CPU interacts with the different memory types to optimise performance
- Define cache hit and cache miss, and explain why the hit rate matters
- Calculate the effect of the hit rate on average memory-access time
🗄️ Why This Matters A chef keeps salt on the counter (registers), today's ingredients on a shelf within arm's reach (cache), the week's stock in the pantry (RAM), and the recipe card for lighting the ovens pinned permanently to the wall (ROM). The kitchen only runs fast because the most-used things are kept closest — computers are