# triple buffering
**Wikidata**: [Q466738](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q466738)  
**Wikipedia**: [English](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triple_buffering)  
**Source**: https://4ort.xyz/entity/triple-buffering

## Summary
Triple buffering is a data buffering technique that uses three buffers to manage and display information, typically in computer graphics. As a specific implementation of multiple buffering, it is designed to prevent visual artifacts caused by reading incomplete data. It is an advancement over the more common double buffering method.

## Key Facts
- **Classification:** A subclass of the `multiple buffering` technique.
- **Purpose:** Used to avoid the reading of incomplete data, ensuring data integrity during display.
- **Predecessor:** Follows the `double buffering` technique in technological development.
- **Aliases:** Also known as "triple buffer," "hardware triple buffer," "hardware triple buffering," and "Triplebuffering."
- **Online Presence:** Has a dedicated Wikipedia page titled "Triple buffering" available in at least five languages (de, en, ru, tr, uk).
- **Identifier:** Recognized in Google's Knowledge Graph with the ID `/g/12135q3f`.

## FAQs
### Q: What is triple buffering a type of?
A: Triple buffering is a specific type, or subclass, of multiple buffering. Multiple buffering is a general data buffering technique used to prevent issues that arise from reading incomplete data.

### Q: What is the relationship between double and triple buffering?
A: Triple buffering follows double buffering, indicating it is a subsequent or more advanced development of the same core buffering concept.

### Q: What problem does triple buffering solve?
A: As a form of multiple buffering, triple buffering is a technique used to solve problems caused by reading incomplete data. This ensures that the data being accessed for display is always a complete and coherent version, preventing visual glitches.

## Why It Matters
Triple buffering is significant because it represents an important advancement in managing the flow of data for real-time graphics rendering. Its parent class, multiple buffering, addresses the fundamental problem of data coherency—ensuring a display device doesn't read a memory buffer while a processor is still writing to it. This conflict is what causes common visual artifacts like screen tearing.

By evolving from double buffering, the triple buffering method provides a more sophisticated solution to this problem. It further decouples the rate at which new frames are rendered from the rate at which the display refreshes. This allows for smoother on-screen motion and improved performance, especially when the rendering rate cannot consistently match the display's refresh rate. Its existence highlights the ongoing effort in computer science to optimize performance and visual fidelity by refining how data is handled between the GPU and the display.

## Notable For
- **Evolutionary Step:** It is a direct technological successor to the widely used double buffering technique.
- **Specific Implementation:** Serves as a distinct subclass within the broader category of multiple buffering techniques.
- **Three-Buffer System:** As its name implies, the technique is defined by its use of three distinct data buffers to manage information flow, an increase from the two used in double buffering.
- **Core Function:** Its primary purpose is to prevent the reading of incomplete data, which is crucial for achieving smooth and artifact-free graphics rendering.

## Body
### Classification and Hierarchy
Triple buffering is a computer science technique for managing data.
- It is formally classified as a subclass of the more general concept of **multiple buffering**.
- The purpose of the multiple buffering class of techniques is to avoid issues that arise from reading incomplete data from a buffer that is currently being updated.

### Relationship to Other Techniques
- Triple buffering is considered a successor to **double buffering**, as indicated by its "follows" relationship in technical taxonomies.
- This places it within a clear developmental progression of buffering methods, each designed to improve performance and data integrity in graphics pipelines and other data-streaming applications.

### Terminology and Identification
The entity is known by several aliases in technical literature and software settings.
- Common aliases include: `triple buffer`, `hardware triple buffer`, `hardware triple buffering`, `Triple Buffering`, and `Triplebuffering`.
- It is indexed in Google's Knowledge Graph under the machine-readable ID `/g/12135q3f`.