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Relative Access Times

These are the times it takes to access various parts of computer architecture, multiplied up to units we can understand.

1 sec · 1 CPU cycle (in reality, 0.3 nanoseconds)

3 sec · level 1 cache access
9 sec · level 2 cache access
43 sec · level 3 cache access

6 min · RAM read & write

2-6 days · SSD read & write
1-12 months · spinning disk read & write

4 years · San Francisco to NYC by internet
8 years · San Francisco to UK by internet
19 years · San Francisco to Australia by internet

13 millenia · Macbook Reboot

When your phone or computer suddenly takes much longer to do something that should be quick, it’s because a task has been shunted up this hierarchy.

From Systems Performance: Enterprise and the Cloud via Ben Thompson.

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