2.1.2

What is caching?

Instructions or data retrieved from secondary storage and placed into main memory. These remain there in case they are needed again before the program using them ends.

Why is caching useful?

Results in faster retrieval times, as it instructions or data don’t need to be fetched from secondary storage, which is much slower.

What is prefetching?

More advanced caching, involves data being requested from main memory by the processor before its actually required

What is needed for prefetching to work?

Clever algorithms need to be designed to predict- with a high degree of certainty- that an instruction or piece of data will be required soon

Negatives of caching

Nature of predictive logic means caching algorithms can be very complicated to implement.
Wrong data is often fetched and cached- and has to be removed, or flushed

What is an API

An API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of rules and protocols that allows different software applications to communicate with each other. APIs enable the integration of data, services, and functionalities from various applications, making it easier for developers to build complex systems without starting from scratch

e.g. Facebook finding friends u already have