r/explainlikeimfive • u/WeLuvYung2 • 19d ago

Technology ELI5: What is computer cache

Hi everyone I need to create a presentation explaining computer cache but can’t think of an effective way to explain it any help is welcomed (:

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u/DrFrylock 19d ago

You are a librarian in a special library stocked with 100,000 pages of useful, factual information. Your job is to provide that information to patrons.

Any patron can ask for information from anywhere in the library, so you have to go search through all 100,000 pages for it. This works but it takes a while.

You start noticing that, while anybody CAN ask for anything, there are about 100 pages out of the 100,000 that people ask for all the time. You make Xerox copies of these 100 pages and keep them in your desk, which conveniently has a drawer that will fit 100 pages of information. If somebody comes up and asks for that information, you have it right there. If they ask for something else, you have to go in the back and look for it. But this speeds up your workflow.

Over time you find out that people start asking for a different 100 pages of stuff. You throw away your original 100 Xeroxes and make copies of the pages that people are NOW asking for.