Prefetching in computer science is a technique for speeding up fetch operations by beginning a fetch operation whose result is expected to be needed soon. Usually this is before it is ''known'' to be needed, so there is a risk of wasting time by prefetching data that will not be used. The technique can be applied in several circumstances: *

Cache prefetching Cache prefetching is a technique used by computer processors to boost execution performance by fetching instructions or data from their original storage in slower memory to a faster local memory before it is actually needed (hence the term 'prefetc ...

, a speedup technique used by computer processors where instructions or data are fetched before they are needed *

Prefetch input queue Fetching the instruction opcodes from program memory well in advance is known as prefetching and it is served by using prefetch input queue (PIQ).The pre-fetched instructions are stored in data structure - namely a queue. The fetching of opcodes ...

(PIQ), in computer architecture, pre-loading machine code from memory *

Link prefetching Link prefetching allows web browsers to pre-load resources. This speeds up both the loading and rendering of web pages. Prefetching was first introduced in HTML5. Prefetching is accomplished through hints in web pages. These hints are used by the ...

, a web mechanism for prefetching links *

Prefetcher The Prefetcher is a component of Microsoft Windows which was introduced in Windows XP. It is a component of the Memory Manager that can speed up the Windows boot process and shorten the amount of time it takes to start up programs. It accomplish ...

technology in modern releases of Microsoft Windows * prefetch instructions, for example provided by ** PREFETCH, an X86 instruction in computing *

Prefetch buffer Synchronous dynamic random-access memory (synchronous dynamic RAM or SDRAM) is any DRAM where the operation of its external pin interface is coordinated by an externally supplied clock signal. DRAM integrated circuits (ICs) produced from the ...

, a feature of DDR SDRAM memory * Swap prefetch, in computer operating systems, anticipatory paging

See also