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LP records vs USB drives. Why physically spinning disks are inherently slow, and how SSDs made servers 100x faster.
| Level | Name | Size (Typical) | Speed (Cycles) | Analogy (Kitchen) | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| L0 | Registers | < 1KB | 0 | Chef's Hands | Active Calculation |
| L1 | L1 Cache | 32KB ~ 64KB | 4 | Cutting Board | Immediate Data |
| L2 | L2 Cache | 256KB ~ 2MB | 12 | Countertop | Private Backup |
| L3 | L3 Cache | 8MB ~ 64MB | 40 | Shelf | Shared Data |
| MEM | DRAM | 16GB ~ 64GB | 200+ | Walk-in Fridge | Workspace Storage |
| DISK | SSD/HDD | > 512GB | Millions+ | Grocery Store | Long-term Storage |
| TLB | TLB | 96~ Entries | 0~1 | Phonebook | Translation Cache |
