Static random-access memory
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Static random-access memory is a type of random-access memory that uses latching circuitry to store each bit. SRAM is volatile memory; data is lost when power is removed.
A static RAM chip from a Nintendo Entertainment System clone (2K × 8 bits)
Imaged by scanning electron microscope; cell topology is clearly visible
Imaged by optical microscope
CPU cache
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A CPU cache is a hardware cache used by the central processing unit of a computer to reduce the average cost to access data from the main memory. A cache is a smaller, faster memory, located closer to
Static random-access memory
…SRAM is faster than DRAM but it is more expensive in terms of silicon area and cost. Typically, SRAM is used for the cache and internal registers of a CPU while DRAM is used for a computer's main memory. Semiconductor bipolar SRAM was invented in 1963 by Robert Norman at…
Motherboard of a NeXTcube computer (1990). At the lower edge of the image left from the middle, there is the CPU Motorola 68040 operated at 25 MHz with two separate level 1 caches of 4 KiB each on the chip, one for the instructions and one for data. The board has no external L2 cache.
Tag RAM on board of a Intel Pentium III
Example of a motherboard with an i386 microprocessor (33 MHz), 64 KiB cache (25 ns; 8 chips in the bottom left corner), 2 MiB DRAM (70 ns; 8 SIMMs to the right of the cache), and a cache controller (Austek A38202; to the right of the processor)