Visualizing computer memory architectures

Abstract

The authors describe a conceptual model, the memory hierarchy framework, and a visual language for using the model. The model is more faithful to the structure of computers than the Von Neumann and Turing models. It addresses the issues of data movement and exposes and unifies storage mechanisms such as cache, translation lookaside buffers, main memory, and disks. The visual language presents the details of a computer's memory hierarchy in a concise drawing composed of rectangles and connecting segments. Using this framework, the authors improved the performance of a matrix multiplication algorithm by more than an order of magnitude. The framework gives insight into computer architecture and performance bottlenecks by making effective use of human visual abilities.