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Look Up: (916 Terms)
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Contributions by Amit Patel
Cache / Caching
A cache is a relatively small location to store frequently needed items. In the context of OSes, a disk cache is a place in main memory where commonly accessed disk blocks are stored. There are two aspects of disk cache that help improve performance: read caching and write caching. When a program attempts to read a block from disk, the OS first checks the cache; if the block is in the cache, the OS returns that block instead of reading from disk. When a program attempts to write a block to disk, the OS first puts it into the cache; the write can be combined with other writes to the same block, and only later (when the disk is idle) does the OS write the block to disk. In the context of processors, a cache is a place on the CPU (level 1 cache) or near the CPU (level 2 cache) that parts of memory. When the CPU requests that memory be transferred into a register, it checks the cache first. When the CPU writes registers to memory, it writes first to the cache. Applications (including games) can have their own caching to keep frequently needed data in memory or on disk to avoid going to disk or network.
Linux
Linux is a free Unix-like operating system available for x86, PowerPC, ARM, Alpha, Sparc, MIPS, and several other platforms. Its strengths are its open source and rapid development, in addition to the traditional strengths of Unix (stability, Internet, networked graphics, scripting).
MacOS (Macintosh)
A fast RISC-based OS with a good user interface and fast graphics.
Word
A word is usually the natural size of data that a processor works with. On early x86 systems, a word was 16 bits. On 32-bit systems, a word is 32 bits. (However, for compatibility with 8088 terminology, Windows uses "word" to mean 16 bits.) On 64-bit systems, a word is 64 bits, but often the operating system "word" is 32 bits for compatibility with existing 32-bit Unix systems.


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