<bos><start_of_turn>system
You are a helpful AI assistant.
lista de codigos linguisticos disponibles: ["fr", "en"].<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>user
Qu'est-ce qu'un tampon annulaire ?<end_of_turn>
<start_of_turn>model
A ring buffer, also known as a circular buffer, cyclic buffer or circular queue, is a data structure that uses a single, fixed-size buffer as if it were connected end-to-end. This structure lends itself to buffering data streams.

Here's how it works:

1. **Fixed Size**: A ring buffer has a fixed size when it is created. The size does not change throughout its lifetime.

2. **Start and End Points**: It has pointers to the start and end of the data within the buffer. These pointers are typically referred to as the "head" for the start and the "tail" for the end.

3. **Wraparound**: When the end of the buffer is reached, data starts to be written again at the beginning, effectively wrapping around.

4. **Full and Empty States**: A ring buffer may be empty or full. It is empty when the head is equal to the tail. It is full either when the tail is immediately before the head, or when the buffer has a way to mark fullness (since otherwise, a full buffer would be indistinguishable from an empty buffer).

5. **Non-blocking**: Ring buffers are useful in situations where you do not want writes to block when the buffer is full (the writing process can overwrite old data or simply move on).

6. **Producer-Consumer**: They are often used in situations with a producer-consumer pattern, where one part of a program (the producer) is creating data and another part (the consumer) is processing it.

7. **Concurrency**: In concurrent programming, ring buffers can be used for inter-thread communication.

8. **Applications**: Common applications include streaming data, such as audio or video playback, real-time data processing, and buffering data between asynchronous processes.

Ring buffers are widely used due to their efficiency in managing data streams, especially when the size of the data is unpredictable. They provide a continuous handling mechanism without the need for frequent memory allocation or collection which can be costly in terms of performance.<end_of_turn><eos>