I'm not exactly sure what you're asking, but i'll try to answer anyway. eZ publish generates html from the content objects stored in the database. This html generation takes some time, and is not always needed (if the content does not change). That is why the generated html often is cached, and this pregenerated cache used instead of rendering it fully each time. So the answer is: yes, both.
If you wonder if its possible to turn this of, then offcourse it is. This is useful when developing pages (but dead slow on production sites).
This page shows you how to turn off template caching (and to show which templates is being used for generating the page) http://ez.no/ez_publish/documentation/customization/tips_tricks/show_which_templates_are_used
