Subject

    Computer Science

    Topic

    Computer Hardware

    What is the main purpose of the CPU's L1 cache?

    a)
    To be a large, shared cache for all CPU cores.
    b)
    To store the most recently used data from the hard drive.
    c)
    To be the fastest and smallest level of cache, located closest to the processing core.
    d)
    To buffer data for I/O devices.

    Explanation

    L1 cache is the top level in the memory hierarchy. Due to its proximity to the core and its use of expensive SRAM, it has the lowest latency. It holds the data and instructions the CPU is most likely to need next, minimizing the time the core has to wait for data from slower levels of memory.

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