CACHE_ON

Syntax

CACHE_ON

Location

SMS, Super Gold Card

This command enables any internal caches which may be available on your operating system. This is in fact the default.

Caches are a means of storing computer instructions in fast memory and cutting down on the time taken by a computer to execute those instructions.

Normally a computer chip works is fed a program in a series of numbers representing commands, a format which is known as machine code. This machine code operates at a very low level - the SuperBASIC command PRINT a$ would need several hundred machine code commands to have any effect on screen). The later Motorola chips (not 68000 or 68008) used by QLs and Amigas (and also the newer chips on PCs and ATARIs) all have on-board caches which can hold a certain number of these machine code instructions. If, while the program is running, it accesses those instructions again within a short time (ie. before the cache becomes full), then the chip can execute that series of commands again very quickly.

Although caches can therefore speed up many programs, some computer programs were written in the days before caches were available for the QL and compatibles, and therefore will not work if the cache is switched on. This is particularly true of some of the commands used by the Turbo compiler which contain self-modifying code, thus meaning that storage of a chunk of instructions is self-defeating.

CROSS-REFERENCE

CACHE_OFF allows you to disable the caches.