How latency numbers changes from 1990 to 2020.

What is Latency

In computing,"latency" describes some type of delay. It typically refers to delays in transmitting or processing data, which can be caused by a wide variety of reasons.

Note: 1 ns = 1 * 10^-9 sec

In 1990:

• L1 cache reference: 181 ns
• L2 cache reference: 784 ns
• Branch mispredict: 603 ns
• Main memory reference: 207 ns
• Compress 1K bytes with Zippy: 362,000 ns
• Send 2K bytes over commodity network: 1448 ns
• Read 1 MB sequentially from memory: 3038000 ns
• Round trip within same datacenter: 500,000 ns
• Disk seek: 20,000,000 ns
• Read 1 MB sequentially from disk: 640,000,000 ns
• Read 1 MB sequentially from SSD: 50,000,000 ns

In 2000:

• L1 cache reference: 6 ns
• L2 cache reference: 25 ns
• Branch mispredict: 19 ns
• Mutex lock/unlock: 94 ns
• Main memory reference: 100 ns
• Compress 1K bytes with Zippy: 11,000 ns
• Send 2K bytes over commodity network: 45,000 ns
• Read 1 MB sequentially from memory: 301,000 ns
• Round trip within same datacenter: 500,000 ns
• Disk seek: 10,000,000 ns
• Read 1 MB sequentially from disk: 20,000,000 ns
• Read 1 MB sequentially from SSD: 5,000,000 ns

In 2010:

• L1 cache reference: 1 ns
• L2 cache reference: 4 ns
• Branch mispredict: 3 ns
• Mutex lock/unlock: 17 ns
• Main memory reference: 100 ns
• Compress 1K bytes with Zippy: 2000 ns
• Send 2K bytes over commodity network: 1000 ns
• Read 1 MB sequentially from memory: 30,000 ns
• Round trip within same datacenter: 500,000 ns
• Disk seek: 5,000,000 ns
• Read 1 MB sequentially from disk: 3,000,000 ns
• Read 1 MB sequentially from SSD: 494,000 ns

In 2020:

• L1 cache reference: 1 ns
• L2 cache reference: 4 ns
• Branch mispredict: 3 ns
• Mutex lock/unlock: 17 ns
• Main memory reference: 100 ns
• Compress 1K bytes with Zippy: 2000 ns
• Send 2K bytes over commodity network: 44 ns
• Read 1 MB sequentially from memory: 3000 ns
• Round trip within same datacenter: 500,000 ns
• Disk seek: 2,000,000 ns
• Read 1 MB sequentially from disk: 825,000 ns
• Read 1 MB sequentially from SSD: 49000 ns

Comparison of Cache Sizes

Image source: Tweet by Tim Chase



Reference: berkeley.edu

Comments

[Adrian B.G.]

[Adrian B.G.]

You wrote 45 instead of 45000 for "Send 2K bytes over commodity network: 45 ns" 2000, and 98000 in 1998.

[Sahil Rajput]

In 1998 it was 91000ns

[Sahil Rajput]

Thank you for updating the picture :)

[Phil Ashby]

Please reference your source, in this case I think it's here:
people.eecs.berkeley.edu/~rcs/rese...

Source by Colin Scott:
github.com/colin-scott/interactive...

which I found via a very informative SO post:

stackoverflow.com/questions/408728...

note that these are interpolated guesstimates from very few data points, hence the silly results for L2 cache in 1990 (4x DRAM access time - err no), and the mention of SSD (in 1990 - also nope).

Thanks for the reminder that the speed of light is a problem in some cases :)

[Quentin Sonrel]

[Thorsten Hirsch]

Unfortunately the complexity of our operating systems has grown even more, resulting in decreased responsiveness after all.

[hidden_dude]

yep: youtube.com/watch?v=tmRJ649ICPU