Data buffer: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 17:34, 23 January 2006

Revision as of 01:31, 26 January 2006

Line 1:

In [[computing]], a '''buffer''' is a region of [[Memory (computers)|memory]] used to temporarily hold output or input data. The data can be output to or input from devices outside the [[computer]] or [[Process (computing)|processes]] within a computer. Buffers can be implemented in either hardware or software, but the vast majority of buffers are implemented in software. Buffers are used when there is a difference between the rate at which data is received and the rate at which it can be processed, or in the case that these rates are variable.

The difference between buffers and cache

Buffers are allocated by various processes to use as input queues, etc. Most time, buffers are some processes' output, and they are file buffers. A simplistic explanation of buffers is that they allow processes to temporarily store input in memory until the process can deal with it.

Cache is typically frequently requested disk I/O. If multiple processes are accessing the same files, much of those files will be cached to improve performance (RAM being so much faster than hard drives), it's disk cache.

==See also==