理解Linux中secondary storage

• Computer data storage

  wikipedia

  Almost all computers use a storage hierarchy, which puts fast but expensive and small storage options close to the CPU and slower but less expensive and larger options further away.

  Generally the fast volatile technologies (which lose data when off power) are reffered to as “memory” , while slower persistent technologies are reffered to as “storage”.

  Von Neumann machines differ from traditional in having a memory in which they store their operating instructions and data.

  From data organization and representation, the most common unit of storage is the byte, equal to 8 bits.

  

• Hierarchy of storage

  Generally, the lower a storage is in the hierarchy, the lesser its bandwidth and the greater its access latency is from the CPU.

  Traditional division of storage to :

  • primary(known as main memory, internal memroy or prime memory)

    often referred to simply as memory, is the only one directly accessible to the CPU.

    traditionally there are two more sub-layers of the primary storage, besides main large-capacity RAM:

    1. Processor resisters

       located inside the prcessor, each register typically holds a word of data(often 32 or 64 bits). Registers are the fastest of all forms of computer data storage.

    2. Processor cache

       intermediate stage between ultra-fast registers and much slower main memory.

  • secondary (known as external memory or auxiliary storage)

    Differs from primary storage in that it is not directly accessible by the CPU.

    The computer usually uses its INPUT/OUTPUT channels to access secondary storage and transfer the desired data to primary storage.

    这里就是常见的所谓IO操作，IO操作较慢就是因为secondary storage is not directly accessiable by the CPU,需要通过IO channel将数据转移到能够直接acciable by CPU的primary storage(RAM、registers、cache)中。

    Modern computer systems typically have two orders of magnitude more secondary storage than primary storage because secondary storage is less expensive.

    Hard disk drives(HDDs) and solid-state drives(SSDs) are usually used as secondary storage.

    The access time per byte for HDDs or SSD is typically measured in milliseconds, while the access time per byte for primary storage is measured in nanoseconds(one billionth seconds).

  • tertiary

  • off-line storage