L3 Cache

Definitions

1. The largest on-chip CPU cache, typically 8–64 MB shared across all cores, with access latencies of 30–50 cycles. It acts as the last line of defense before the processor must fetch from much slower main memory (DRAM).

   In plain English: A large, shared memory on the processor chip that all cores can use, much faster than main memory but slower than the smaller caches closer to each core.

   Example: "Our database index fits in L3 but not L2, so we see about 40-cycle lookups instead of going out to RAM."

Related Terms

• Swap
• connection pool
• WebAssembly
• Clock Speed
• Branch Prediction
• L1 Cache
• L2 Cache
• Memory Alignment
• Program Counter