>Can anyone briefly explain to me what it means to have an integrated
>buffer cache, and what issues there are in implementing one (if we don't
>already have it).

There has been a lot of mail on this, on and off, over the last couple
months on current-users.  Much of it has more to do with what it means
not to have one (as in, the things that don't work well).  I'd
recommend sifting through the mail list archives for the last couple
months.

>I am assuming it has to do with the way disk data blocks are cached during
>normal reads of files, and the way something else is cached - maybe pages
>paged in directly from a.out executables or swap?

You might also consult the FreeBSD site for documents on this, since
they have recently (over the last year, or a little more) implemented
one.

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  Michael L. VanLoon                                 michaelv@HeadCandy.com
        --<  Free your mind and your machine -- NetBSD free un*x  >--
    NetBSD working ports: 386+PC, Mac 68k, Amiga, Atari 68k, HP300, Sun3,
        Sun4/4c/4m, DEC MIPS, DEC Alpha, PC532, VAX, MVME68k, arm32...
    NetBSD ports in progress: PICA, others...

   Roll your own Internet access -- Seattle People's Internet cooperative.
                  If you're in the Seattle area, ask me how.
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