A buffer is a temporary memory area used to store data while it is being transferred between two devices or processes operating at different speeds.
The main goal of a buffer is to avoid bottlenecks and ensure smoother and more efficient communication between components. Buffers are widely used in I/O operations, network transmissions, multimedia playback, and databases.
Key characteristics
- Temporary memory: data is stored in RAM while waiting to be processed or transmitted.
- Speed smoothing: allows a slower device (e.g., a disk) and a faster one (e.g., the CPU) to work together efficiently.
- Prefetch and caching: the system can load data before it is requested to reduce waiting time.
- Universal use: applied in disks, network cards, graphics cards, audio/video systems, and streaming processes.
Example
- When reading a file from a disk, the system does not load just one byte but a whole block into a RAM buffer.
- When playing a streaming video, the player stores a few seconds of data in a buffer to avoid interruptions if the connection fluctuates.
