This part dives deep into the "Store" pillar of computing.
In Part 1, you learned that every computer system does three things: Compute, Store, and Network. Now we focus on Store - how computers remember data. Understanding memory and storage is crucial because it's often the difference between an application that feels instant and one that feels sluggish.
What You'll Learn
In this part, you'll understand why computers have so many different types of memory:
The Memory Hierarchy. From CPU registers that respond in fractions of a nanosecond to hard drives that take milliseconds - a speed difference of millions. You'll learn why this hierarchy exists and how to work with it, not against it.
RAM and Virtual Memory. What happens when your application needs more memory than physically exists? How does the operating system create the illusion of infinite memory, and what's the cost?
Caching Strategies. From CPU caches to application-level caching, the same principles apply everywhere. You'll learn the patterns that make data access fast.
Why This Matters
Performance problems often come down to data being in the wrong place. A senior engineer looks at a slow operation and asks: "Where is this data coming from? Is it in cache? In RAM? On disk? Across the network?"
When you understand the memory hierarchy, you can predict performance characteristics before writing code. You'll know why certain data structures are faster than others, why some operations are surprisingly slow, and how to structure your code to be cache-friendly.
Before You Begin
This part builds on the foundation from Part 1. Make sure you understand processes, memory spaces, and the basic compute-store-network model.
As you read, think about your own applications. Where does your data live? How many times does it move between storage layers before reaching the user? These questions lead to the optimizations that make great software.
Let's explore the Store pillar.