Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD)

[Elmer Phud]

Paul -

Intel uses a traditional L2 cache as follows: First the processor checks L1 cache, if it isn't there then it checks L2 cache. If it finds it there then a copy is made into L1 cache and then into the processor register (or to another cache location, if it is a memory to memory move). If it doesn't find the item in L2 cache then it gets it from main memory, into L2 cache, into L1 cache, etc.

Some others can address this better than I but I think it does all of those operations simultaniousley. If it's in L1 it cancles the L2 and main memory request. If it's in L2 it cancles the memory request. No need to wait while it's checking each in sequence.