memoization

from The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
memo function
memoisation
memoised function
memoization
memoized function

   <programming> (Or "memoised function") A {function} that
   remembers which {arguments} it has been called with and the
   result returned and, if called with the same arguments again,
   returns the result from its memory rather than recalculating
   it.

   Memo functions were invented by Professor {Donald Michie} of
   {Edinburgh University}.  The idea was further developed by
   {Robin Popplestone} in his {Pop2} language long before it was
   ever worked into LISP.

   This same principle is found at the hardware level in computer
   architectures which use a {cache} to store recently accessed
   memory locations.

   A {Common Lisp} package by Marty Hall
   <[email protected]>
   (ftp://archive.cs.umbc.edu/pub/Memoization).

   ["'Memo' functions: and machine learning", Donald Michie,
   Nature, 218, 19-22, 1968].

   (2002-07-02)