Cleverer management of the local memory banks known as 'caches' could improve computer chips' performance while reducing their energy consumption. Computer chips keep getting faster because transistors keep getting smaller. But the chips themselves are as big as ever, so data moving around the chip, and between chips and main memory, has to travel just as far. As transistors get faster, the cost of moving data becomes, proportionally, a more severe limitation.

Source: Better cache management could improve chip performance, cut energy use