Memory is slow, Disk is fast

DRANK

TL;DRSourcing data directly from disk IS faster than caching in memory. I brought receipts. Because hardware got wider but not faster, the old methods don't get you there. You need new tools to use what is scaling and avoid what isn't.IntroductionIn part 1 I showed how some computer performance factors are scaling exponentially while others have been stagnant for decades. I then asserted, without proof, that sourcing data from disk can be faster than from memory. What follows is the proof.Computer Science dogma says that unused memory should be used to cache things from the filesystem because the disk is slow and memory is fast. Given that disk bandwidth is growing exponentially and memory access latency has stagnated this isn't always true anymore.Experimental set upWe need data and something straight forward to do with the data. I used my free will or the illusion thereof to create a benchmark I cleverly call "counting 10s". I write some pseudo random integers between 0 and 20 to a …