In computing, a buffer is a region of memory used to temporarily hold output or input data, comparable to buffers in telecommunication. The data can be output to or input from devices outside the computer or 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, for example in a printer spooler.
The difference between buffers and cache:
Buffers are allocated by various processes to use as input queues, etc. Most of the 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
- Buffer (telecommunication)
- Buffer overflow
- Buffer underrun
- Circular buffer
- Cache
- Frame buffer for use in graphical display
- Double buffering and Triple buffering for techniques mainly in graphics
- Pixel buffer, Color buffer, Depth buffer, Stencil buffer, Accumulation buffer for different parts of image information