DRAM is linear memory. Caches, less so. Register files really aren't. CPUs spend rather a lot of transistors and power to reconcile the reality of how they mani

DRAM is linear memory. Caches, less so. Register files really aren't. CPUs spend rather a lot of transistors and power to reconcile the reality of how they manipulate data within the core against the external model of RAM in a flat linear address space.