Cache memory design: An evolving art: Designers are looking to line size, degree of associativity, and virtual addresses as important parameters in speeding up the operation

Cache memories — buffers that hold information from main memory so that a processor can reach it quickly — have long been an essential part of mainframes and of many minicomputers. Now they are being built into systems using microcomputers. They are being incorporated in one-chip microcomputers as on-chip caches that make access time even shorter. Some processor-chip manufacturers are even building their products around cache memories, making the system designer's job simpler.