Converting what nanoseconds to a CPU are to seconds on a human time scale: it would take up to three years to get some information from disk, when getting it from L1 cache takes a few seconds.

Welcome to the world of hard disk storage, where your information is retrieved by making plates of metal spin really fast. Many metric tons of sweat have been spent making this as fast as possible, but it’s hard to keep up with electrons flowing through wires.

Link: Peter Burns – Google+ – Let’s talk time scales real quick. Your computer’s CPU…