Step 1: A buffer is a temporary storage area that holds data being transferred from one device to another. It compensates for differences in the rate of data flow between the devices.
Step 2: The other options:
- A cache stores frequently accessed data to speed up data retrieval but does not compensate for rate differences.
- A concentrator combines multiple data streams into one, but it is not used for rate compensation.
- RAM is general-purpose memory and does not specifically handle data rate differences.
Thus, the correct answer is (b) Buffer.