role of a buffer in I/O operations.

A buffer in I/O (Input/Output) operations serves as a temporary holding area in memory used to store data being transferred between devices or between a device and a program. It smooths out discrepancies in data transfer rates between different components, allowing efficient data handling and management of asynchronous I/O operations. Buffers help improve overall system performance by reducing the overhead associated with frequent direct access to slower I/O devices.