A Concise Introduction to Programming in Python

Chapter 5

Computer Memory: Integers

It is time to go back to the machine level and look a little more deeply at

memory. At a high level, computer memory may be categorized according to

concepts such as access speed and size. Definite patterns emerge:

Access Proximity

Type Speed to CPU Size Volatile

Register Fastest Inside 10’s Y

Caches Very fast Adjacent 100’s to MB Y

RAM Fast Near GB Y

Hard disks Slow Far TB N

At a lower level, the question is, how is data actually stored in computer

memory? In this chapter, we begin to develop an answer by looking at how

integers are stored.

Bits and Bytes

Computer memory of all types may be thought of at different levels ...