Cache, what does it mean?

[beginner]

I am just puzzling what cache mean, that's why I post this question and hope someone could help me and make this additional knowledge for me and for anyone who open this topic..

how it works and how do I upgrade the cache?
where can I find cache in my computer??
what are the effects if I have high cache and low Processor speed?

any reply will be appreciated... many thanks...




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esquared
Anandtech Senior Moderator

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[Harvey]

The word, cache is French for "hide." Your CPU has two sections of very fast on die memory where it stores most recently used commands that are also stored in your system RAM and on your drive. That allows it much faster access to the commands it is most likely to need than it can get from either your RAM or your drive.

Several programs, including your browser, keep various information from recent sites in a cache on your drive. That saves them from having to go back to the web to re-display recently visited pages.

There are other uses of caches in your system, but that's a basic explanation.

 

[Idontcare]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cache

Cache is used to store data and instructions internally on the processor. Versus say storing the data and instructions on an external (to the CPU) device like your hard-drive or a CD or a USB thumbdrive.

The advantage of having the cache located internally to the CPU is the access speed (latency) and quantity of data that can be moved around (bandwidth) are vastly better than all other techniques for storing or moving data around.

Of course there is a trade-off, namely the size of the cache (the amount of data that it can store) is quite a bit smaller than your hard-drive or USB thumb drive.