Because it is impossible to predict the future with perfect accuracy, the cache must guess what data will be needed based on the past pattern of memory accesses

The cache exploits …. to achieve a low miss rate

means that the processor is likely to access a piece of data again soon if it has accessed that data recently

when the processor loads or stores data that is in the cache, the data is copied from main memory into the cache

means that, when the processor accesses a piece of data, it is also likely to access data in nearby memory locations

when the cache fetches one word from memory, it may also fetch several adjacent words

when the processor loads or stores data that is not in the cache, the data is copied from main memory into the cache

several adjacent words are called

The number of words in the cache line, is called the

The address of the data in the cache is the same as the main memory address

the CPU uses a specific mapping scheme that converts the main memory address into a cache location

The mapping scheme determines where the data is placed when it is originally copied into cache and provides a method for the CPU to find data when searching cache

Main memory and cache are both divided into the same size blocks

There are … main memory blocks than there are cache blocks

in direct mapped cache main memory blocks compete for cache locations

Number of blocks = main memory size / block size

Number of blocks = 2^n  ---- here n represents

Number of lines = cache size / line size

Number of lines = 2^n ---- here n represents

cache index, block index are essentially measured by

main memory size, cache memory size, block size are essentially measured by