Overview

You can increase the performance of the hard disk drives and CD-ROM drives by caching. When this mode is enabled, part of the available RAM is allocated for data buffering. Buffering is used during read/write operations when accessing the hard drive, and during read operations when accessing CD-ROM drive.

Caching allows you to optimize data transfer, and in the long run, boosts the overall performance of the computer. When caching is enabled, data exchange between the drive (HDD or CD-ROM), its controller, and all other hardware components of the system is not done in small fragments, but rather in blocks of significant length. This speeds up data exchange.

Modern devices have built-in controllers with built-in cache memory, but the size of this built-in cache memory is often insufficient for attaining the highest possible speed of data access and exchange. In such a case, it is possible to programmatically reserve some part of available RAM for additional data buffering. A memory buffer of significant size not only allows reading of the data necessary in the current reading cycle, but also of the data that might be needed in the next one(s). In accordance with the fairly complicated caching algorithms, the needed data is first sought in the cache memory (a specially allocated part of the RAM), and then on the disks in the chosen drive. This decreases the number of access operations to the HDD or CD-ROM drive. Accessing the RAM is much faster than accessing data stored on the hard disk or CD. This is due to the fact that electronic elements are much faster than mechanical ones. For mechanical movements the execution time of the command is measured in milliseconds (hard drives) and even tenths of milliseconds (CD-ROM drives). Searches in the RAM can be completed in tenths of nanoseconds, that is, hundreds of thousands times faster. Hence, saving data in the RAM section specifically reserved for caching will speed up data exchange and increase the general performance of the computer system. Caching can significantly increase the operating speed of the drives, which is especially true for CD-ROM drives.