CACHES

CACHES

In a computer, memory system performance can be improved by a mechanism called caches. On proper use, the cache speeds up average memory access time. A cache is nothing but a small fast memory. Cache stores some of the contents of main memory. CPU performance become superlative due to cache but the small memory constraint remains there. If CPU usage is limited to small set of memory locations at any one time. For this set of active locations, we can call a name working set. Cache controller is a device which mediates between the CPU and main memory which sends a memory request to the cache and main memory. Cache hit and cache miss are two other major concepts in this field. The implementation of cache can be done by direct-mapped cache.