DBMS: Buffer Pool (Definitions)

"A buffer pool is a group of buffers logically connected so that a file using the pool has access to any of the available buffers." (F Peter Fisher & ‎George F Swindle, "Computer Programming Systems", 1964)

"A buffer pool is an area of storage that is segmented to provide a specific number of buffers. Buffers are obtained from the pool when needed and returned when no longer needed. Once returned to the pool, the buffer is then free to be used for another purpose." (Michael P Bouros, "Getting Into VSAM: An Introduction and Technical Reference", 1987)

"The buffer pool is a group of shared memory pages in the resident memory. It is used whenever a data page is read from disk." (Ron Flannery, "The Informix Handbook", 2000)

"A fixed-size allocation of memory, used to store an in-memory copy of a bunch of pages." (Peter Gulutzan & Trudy Pelzer, "SQL Performance Tuning", 2002)

"A buffer pool […] is simply a part of the total buffer cache that is subject to different retention criteria for database objects like tables." (Sam Alapati, "Expert Oracle Database 11g Administration" , 2009)

"A buffer pool is an area of memory into which database pages are read, modified, and held during processing." (IBM, "Business Process Management Performance teams", 2010)

"A block of memory reserved for index and table data pages." (SQL Server 2012 Glossary, "Microsoft", 2012)

"An area of memory set aside and used to avoid I/O operations when actual data is being read from the database. Also referred to as a data cache." (Craig S Mullins, "Database Administration: The Complete Guide to DBA Practices and Procedures" 2nd Ed., 2012)

"The buffer pool is a caching mechanism for managing transactions and writing and reading data to or from disks […]" (Charles Bell et al, MySQL High Availability: Tools for Building Robust Data Centers, 2014) 

"An area of memory into which data pages are read and in which they are modified and held during processing." (Sybase, "Open Server Server-Library/C Reference Manual", 2019)

"A buffer pool is an area of main memory that has been allocated by the database manager for the purpose of caching table and index data as it is read from disk." (IBM, DB2 documentation)

"The memory area that holds cached InnoDB data for both tables and indexes." (MySQL, "MySQL 8.0 Reference Manual Glossary")