Prefetching generally means loading something ahead of time and could refer to any one of the following topics:

• Instruction prefetch, in computer architecture, a microprocessor speedup technique
• Prefetch input queue (PIQ), in computer architecture, pre-loading machine code from memory
• Link prefetching, a web mechanism for prefetching links
• The Prefetcher technology in modern releases of Microsoft Windows
• PREFETCH an X86 instruction in computing
• Prefetch buffer, a feature of DDR SDRAM memory