Cache Miss

What Does Cache Miss Mean?

Cache miss is a state where the data requested for processing by a component or application is not found in the cache memory. It causes execution delays by requiring the program or application to fetch the data from other cache levels or the main memory.

Techopedia Explains Cache Miss

Cache miss occurs within cache memory access modes and methods. For each new request, the processor searched the primary cache to find that data. If the data is not found, it is considered a cache miss.

Each cache miss slows down the overall process because after a cache miss, the central processing unit (CPU) will look for a higher level cache, such as L1, L2, L3 and random access memory (RAM) for that data. Further, a new entry is created and copied in cache before it can be accessed by the processor.