Is it possible to store data in the processor cache directly?

Question

I was wondering if there is a way to store data in the processor data cache directly, and not in main memory. I understand that the way caches work is to store the most frequently used data, but it makes sense to have a build directive to tell the processor that this will be frequently used data. I use IA-32 assembly language.

Thanks!

Answer 1

Depending on the architecture, there are biased hints for moving data directly to the cache. For ia32, this is a prefetch statement that can move data to L1, L2.

On the other hand, there are instructions that tell the processor to avoid using a cache like moventdq , which moves data directly from / to memory.

Edit: In addition, there are instructions for setting memory ranges for certain types of caching algorithms, such as write, write, write, or combine. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_type_range_register .

Answer 2

No, you cannot access the cache directly at the assembly level. Since the cache is "hidden" (L1 and L2) in the processor and, possibly, there is no cache at all.