If each block has only one place it can appear in the cache, the cache is said to be direct mapped. The mapping is usually (block-frame address) modulo (number of blocks in cache).

If a block can be placed anywhere in the cache, the cache is said to be fully associative.

If a block can be placed in a restricted set of places in the cache, the cache is said to be set associative. A set is a group of two or more blocks in the cache. A block is first mapped onto a set, and then the block can be placed anywhere within the set. The set is usually chosen by bit selection; that is, (block-frame address) modulo (number of sets in cache). If there are n blocks in a set, the cache placement is called n-way set associative.