1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to managing the use of auxiliary memory devices as cache memory.
2. Related Art
Improvements to central processing unit (CPU) hardware have, in general, far outpaced advances made in disk drive memory in terms of speed of operation. As a result, a common bottleneck to improved computer performance has been the time needed to retrieve data from disk drive memory for use by the CPU. To help alleviate this problem, computer systems are commonly operated so as to store (or cache) data needed by the CPU in main system memory, e.g., RAM that is typically located on the computer motherboard and has relatively fast read/write times, especially as compared to magnetic disk memory. Thus, needed data can be moved from a disk drive to the main system memory (preferably before the data is needed by the CPU), helping to speed the computer's operation.