Types of cache: What are they, what are they for and how are these temporary memories classified?

When we browse the different Internet sites, without us noticing, they install useful information on our computer so that the next time we access them, the loading of that page is much faster and thus we have bandwidth savings (among other benefits).

But not only do these sites host information in our cache, so do all those applications that we use most frequently. The reason for this is so that they work better, recharge faster and remember our data.

There are different types of cache and there are also steps to be able to clear them on different operating systems. In this article we will show you the most important points you need to know about this memory.

What is a cache and what are they for in computing?

The cache is the place where all the latest data that has been generated in our computer is stored. This data may be the result of some process or duplicate files that exist elsewhere on our PC and are needed for faster access. It is very similar to main memory, but it is smaller, faster, and faster to access.

It is said that there is a cache hit when the data being searched for is stored in this memory, while a cache miss It is done when the requested information is not there. Generally we will find the volatile memory located between the CPU and RAMthis location is not random but rather mandatory because staying there improves data exchange between these units.

What are the main types of cache memories that exist?

As all kinds of information that our computer needs to speed up the boot process and be able to translate all this into a better user experience are stored in this memory, there are different sources or memory depending on where the data comes from.

Next we will show you each cache:

web

Perhaps it is the volatile memory that we know the most or the most we talk about on a daily basis.. When we want to increase the efficiency in loading pages or Internet sites and at the same time we want to reduce the consumption of data or broadband, this memory is necessary to meet those goals..

In this memory, all the data is stored, which works only for the user, which we will call “private cache”the information that will be used by different websites and various users, we will call this “public cache” and those data that only work for the server that originates them is the call “gateway cache”

of track

This memory has a high acquisition cost since it is solid state. The same are for supercomputersthat is, it is intended for those computers that need to perform higher or specific calculations and have high performance.

disk

It is much easier and faster to find a byte in RAM memory than a byte of information in main memory or hard disk..

By saving data that was recently used in RAM, we will considerably increase the performance of the software that we have installed on the CPU. When we associate a small part of the RAM memory with the hard disk, it is known as disk cache.which is used to store that data and make the startup and processing of installed applications more efficient.

How does a cache memory work on your computer?

The cache works on those requests for input and output operations (which are measured per second), which are necessary to increase data recovery and reduce, as a final result, the costs of acquiring hardware or software.

If we did not have a cache memory, we would have to allocate other resources to be able to supplant its operation, which would increase costs, but also, would not have the same team performance. By storing information in this memory, better results will be obtained in installed applications since latency is significantly reduced.

An important point to note, It is what we mentioned before with the cache hit. A cache will work well if we can allocate or classify the correct data to be stored in it and thus cause an increase in the speed of application processing.

Steps to clear any cache on Windows or MacOS

Although cache memory has many advantages and benefits when it comes to the performance of the different resources of a computer, it also has a point against it. This negative factor arises when the memory is full and starts to slow down the processing of our CPU.

A previous clarification: the DNS is in charge of translating or relating all the complex addresses of numbers, existing in a database at a global level, in domain names. When we access through an IP what we are doing (basically) is, through the DNSwrite that complex data.

The DNS cache saves those domain names to which we have accessed so that when we want to enter again we do not have to look for it in the global database.

Next, we will show you all the steps you need to do to clear the memory for Windows, MacOS and Linux operating systems:

In Windows

In our Windows operating system we will perform these steps:

• We click on “Start”
• We write the word “Run”
• We choose the application “Run”
• A box will appear where we will write “ipconfig /flushdns”
• We press “Accept”

The command will allow emptying and restoring the content that the cache has in relation to the DNS

on macOS

When our operating system is MacOS we will have to perform these tasks:

• We click on “Applications”
• We select “Utilities”
• we choose “Terminal”
• A box will appear and we will write “sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder”
• If there is no warning, we will write the password of the administrator of the equipment
• We click on “To accept”

on linux

If our computer works with the Linux operating system and we need to clear the DNS cache, we will follow this simple step by step:

• We enter “System”
• We wrote “sudo systemd-resolve –flush-cachres”
• And then we execute that command

If we are using RedHat or ArchLinux:

• The command we will use is “sudo systemctl restart nscd”

Why is it important to delete caches from time to time?

We know that caching is designed to improve the user experience, It is also true that it causes certain damages in the processing and performance of the equipment..

There are situations in which we are not going to enter certain Internet sites again, or we are going to save information on the hard drive that we will not use permanently. These two operations store information in our cache and we don’t really need it to be stored there.

This is why we recommend you to clean the cache periodically because you will obtain benefits that we will mention below:

• A lots of sites changed their interface and the cache does not let it work well on our PC because it has old information.
• By emptying the memory there is a greater capacity to store other data that will be used for other applications or sites, causing our range of resources is larger and can encompass more programs.
• protect our privacymany sites save information in our cache to spy on us and obtain our tastes and preferences.
• By overwriting memory when it’s full (often with stuff we don’t need) we lose information that we do need and we put aside for other useless.