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software prefetch

An instruction a program can use to ask for a line to be brought into the cache early, as a hint, without waiting for it.

A software prefetch (x86-64 prefetcht0/prefetchnta, ARM64 prfm, __builtin_prefetch in GCC/Clang) requests a line without blocking or faulting; it helps only when issued far enough ahead and when the hardware prefetcher can't see the pattern.

See also

hardware prefetcher
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