Home> News> What is the difference between Level 1 cache, Level 2 cache and Level 3 cache?
February 08, 2023

What is the difference between Level 1 cache, Level 2 cache and Level 3 cache?

How does a computer cache work? When the cpu reads the cache data, it first looks up the data from the cache, reads it, and then inputs it into the computer's cpu for processing. If there is no corresponding cache file for the cpu to process, the computer will process the data from the memory and give it to the cpu for processing. This process is much slower than finding a cache file.
After the cpu has finished processing the data, it will save the processed data module, which is the cache file, so that it will be much faster to read the file later, not as slow as before, and will not read the data in memory repeatedly.

The computer cache file is divided into three levels, which are one, two, three level cache.
The first level of cache is basically built into the cpu and runs at the same speed as the cpu, which can effectively improve the efficiency of the cpu. The more level one cache, the more efficient the cpu will be. The internal structure of the cpu limits the size of the first-level cache, so the capacity of the first-level cache is very small.

The main role of the second level cache is to coordinate the efficiency between the first level cache and the memory.
The first level of cache is used by the cpu, and when the speed of the cpu is slowly increased, the first level of cache is not enough for the cpu, and then the second level of cache is needed. Of course, the second level of memory will be much less efficient than the first level of memory cache, but the capacity of the second level of memory capacity is much larger than the first level of capacity. The first level of memory and the second level of memory are mainly used for temporary data exchange when the cpu is processing data.

The third level cache is similar to the first level cache and the second level cache, which is a cache designed to read when the second level cache is not enough. In the cpu with the third level cache, only about five percent of the data needs to be retrieved in memory, which can improve the efficiency of the cpu, so that the cpu can work at high speed.

There are two types of mainstream CPUs on the market now, AMD and intel. AMD CPUs only use Level 1 cache and Level 2 cache, not Level 3 cache. But the intel cpu is the opposite, there are two levels of cache and three levels of cache, but no first-level cache.


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