A Short Video Course on

Cache Memory

Prof. Harry H. Porter III, Ph.D.

Portland State University

Last updated: November 18, 2015

Overview

These videos describes how cache memory works. The following concepts are defined and explained: 
   cache hit                       hit-rate v. miss rate
   cache miss                      miss penalty
     compulsory miss               principle of locality
     conflict miss                 working set
     capacity miss                 stride-1 access
   cache lines                     cache coherency
   cache blocks                    valid and dirty bits
   fully associative caches        write-through v. write-back
   directed-mapped caches          write-allocate v. write-no-allocate
   tag, index, and offset bits     thrashing
The overall arrangement of L1, L2, and L3 caches in the Intel Core i7 is discussed.

These videos are intended for serious Computer Science students but assume no specific knowledge, beyond the general concepts of computer architecture.

Number of videos: 9
Total time: 143 minutes (2 hours, 23 minutes)
Average time per video: 16 minutes
Created: November 2015
YouTube

You can watch the videos directly from the links below without any distractions. But if they don't work, try this link.
      YouTube.com playlist
The Videos

Introduction (13 mins)
Basic Concepts (12 mins)
Locality, Working Set, and Stride (25 mins)
Cache Lines, Cache Blocks, Cache Coherency (20 mins)
Associative Caches (14 mins)
Direct Mapped Caches (14 mins)
The General Approach (15 mins)
Cache Misses and Pathological Cases (15 mins)
Summary Review of Main of Concepts (15 mins)
Info about video formatting:

Produced on a Mac; MPEG-4; H.264; Millions; AAC; 2 channels; 32000 Hz; FPS: 23.98.
640 x 360; Data rate: about 350 kbit/s
Problems / Comments on This Web Page