[tlug] Re: Tweaking the kernel

[Tobias Diedrich <ranma@example.com>]

Jonathan Byrne wrote:

> However, AFAIK it's not possible to lie to the OS about your
> L1 or L2 cache sizes by manipulating /proc/cpuinfo or MTRRs,
> not would it likely do anything good if you could do so.

Exactly. The L1 cache is embedded on the CPU and you can only
enable/disable it (via BIOS settings). L2 cache used to sit on the
mainboard, but nowadays CPUs may have onchip L2 cache too, so the
mainboard cache is then L3 cache.
The Athlon XP has 128KB L1 cache and 256KB L2 cache onchip, so its ok
for /proc/cpuinfo to say 256KB (of course it would be more correct to
list both instead of just the larger one).

And as cache memory is dedicated memory you can only enable/disable it
and not change its size.

-- 
Tobias						PGP: http://9ac7e0bc.2ya.com
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