Final answer:
The Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB) is a special cache in the CPU used to speed up virtual-to-physical memory address translations, improving overall memory access speed.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB) is a special cache within a computer's CPU that stores recent translations of virtual memory to physical memory addresses. When the CPU accesses a virtual address, it first checks the TLB to see if the page table entry with the address translation is there. This process significantly speeds up memory access since accessing the TLB is faster than querying the page table stored in the main memory. If the address is not found in the TLB, known as a TLB miss, the CPU must read from the main memory, which takes more time. The TLB is a crucial component for efficient address translation in systems that use a virtual memory architecture.