Multiple choiceQuestion 1 · Recall
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By the end you can say what a buffer is, why it's needed, and describe step by step how a print buffer is used.
A sushi chef works far faster than customers eat. So the chef loads a conveyor belt in a burst, then goes off to do other jobs while customers take plates at their own pace.
When the belt runs empty, a customer calls the chef back. That belt is a buffer.
Where the analogy breaks: a real buffer has a fixed size, and data leaves in strict order (first in, first out), not whichever plate looks tastiest.
Buffer
A temporary area of memory (usually RAM) that holds data while it is being transferred between two devices or processes that work at different speeds, such as the processor and a printer.
| Buffer | Holds | Why |
|---|---|---|
| print buffer | data waiting to be printed | printer is far slower than the processor |
| keyboard buffer | keypresses not yet read by the program | you can type ahead while the computer is busy |
| streaming buffer | the next few seconds of video or audio | playback continues through network hiccups |
| disk buffer | data on its way to or from a disk | disk access is slow compared with RAM |