cachés

A cache, pronounced "cash," is a temporary storage area that stores frequently accessed data so that future requests for that data can be served faster. It is a hardware or software component that stores data such that future requests for that same data can be served faster. The data stored in a cache might be the result of an earlier computation or a copy of data stored elsewhere. Caching is a fundamental concept in computer science and is used in a wide variety of systems, from the smallest embedded devices to the largest supercomputers.

There are several types of caches. CPU caches are small amounts of very fast memory located on or very close to the central processing unit (CPU). They store frequently used instructions and data, allowing the CPU to access them much more quickly than if it had to retrieve them from main memory (RAM). Disk caches, also known as buffer caches, are areas of RAM used to store frequently read data from a hard disk drive or solid-state drive. This speeds up access to files and applications. Web caches, or browser caches, store copies of web pages, images, and other web resources that have been previously visited. When a user revisits a web page, the browser can load it much faster by retrieving the cached copies instead of downloading them again from the internet.

The primary benefit of caching is improved performance. By reducing the time it takes to access frequently used data, caches can significantly speed up the overall operation of a system. However, caches also introduce a challenge known as cache coherence. When data is modified in one location, ensuring that all other copies of that data in various caches are updated or invalidated is crucial to maintain data integrity. Cache invalidation strategies and protocols are employed to manage this complexity. Caching is a trade-off between speed and consistency, and its effective implementation is key to optimizing many computing tasks.