Algorithms for Memory Hierarchies: Advanced Lectures

Author(s): Peter Sanders (auth.), Ulrich Meyer, Peter Sanders, Jop Sibeyn (eds.)

Series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science 2625

Algorithms that have to process large data sets have to take into account that the cost of memory access depends on where the data is stored. Traditional algorithm design is based on the von Neumann model where accesses to memory have uniform cost. Actual machines increasingly deviate from this model: while waiting for memory access, nowadays, microprocessors can in principle execute 1000 additions of registers; for hard disk access this factor can reach six orders of magnitude.