A system for the detection and support of data streams is disclosed. The system determines whether new commands comprise a data stream. If a new data stream is detected, the system next determines whether adequate resources are available to launch the new data stream. If the system determines that the data stream can be launched, system resources, particularly cache memory space, are assigned to the data stream to provide the data stream with the necessary amount of data throughput needed to support the data stream efficiently. The data stream's throughput is the amount of data that the stream requires per unit time. The system monitors all supported data streams to determine when a particular data stream has terminated, at which time resources dedicated to the data stream are released and become available to support other data streams. The cache for each supported data stream is maintained at as full a level as possible, with the cache for the "least full" data stream given priority for refresh. Allocating resources by throughput allows for more efficient resource utilization.