Programmatically get the cache line size?

Question

On Linux (with a reasonably recent kernel), you can get this information out of /sys:

/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cache/

This directory has a subdirectory for each level of cache. Each of those directories contains the following files:

coherency_line_size
level
number_of_sets
physical_line_partition
shared_cpu_list
shared_cpu_map
size
type
ways_of_associativity

This gives you more information about the cache then you'd ever hope to know, including the cacheline size (coherency_line_size) as well as what CPUs share this cache. This is very useful if you are doing multithreaded programming with shared data (you'll get better results if the threads sharing data are also sharing a cache).

On Linux look at sysconf(3).

sysconf (_SC_LEVEL1_DCACHE_LINESIZE)

You can also get it from the command line using getconf:

$ getconf LEVEL1_DCACHE_LINESIZE
64

I have been working on some cache line stuff and needed to write a cross-platform function. I committed it to a github repo at https://github.com/NickStrupat/CacheLineSize, or you can just use the source below. Feel free to do whatever you want with it.

#ifndef GET_CACHE_LINE_SIZE_H_INCLUDED
#define GET_CACHE_LINE_SIZE_H_INCLUDED

// Author: Nick Strupat
// Date: October 29, 2010
// Returns the cache line size (in bytes) of the processor, or 0 on failure

#include <stddef.h>
size_t cache_line_size();

#if defined(__APPLE__)

#include <sys/sysctl.h>
size_t cache_line_size() {
    size_t line_size = 0;
    size_t sizeof_line_size = sizeof(line_size);
    sysctlbyname("hw.cachelinesize", &line_size, &sizeof_line_size, 0, 0);
    return line_size;
}

#elif defined(_WIN32)

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <windows.h>
size_t cache_line_size() {
    size_t line_size = 0;
    DWORD buffer_size = 0;
    DWORD i = 0;
    SYSTEM_LOGICAL_PROCESSOR_INFORMATION * buffer = 0;

    GetLogicalProcessorInformation(0, &buffer_size);
    buffer = (SYSTEM_LOGICAL_PROCESSOR_INFORMATION *)malloc(buffer_size);
    GetLogicalProcessorInformation(&buffer[0], &buffer_size);

    for (i = 0; i != buffer_size / sizeof(SYSTEM_LOGICAL_PROCESSOR_INFORMATION); ++i) {
        if (buffer[i].Relationship == RelationCache && buffer[i].Cache.Level == 1) {
            line_size = buffer[i].Cache.LineSize;
            break;
        }
    }

    free(buffer);
    return line_size;
}

#elif defined(linux)

#include <stdio.h>
size_t cache_line_size() {
    FILE * p = 0;
    p = fopen("/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cache/index0/coherency_line_size", "r");
    unsigned int i = 0;
    if (p) {
        fscanf(p, "%d", &i);
        fclose(p);
    }
    return i;
}

#else
#error Unrecognized platform
#endif

#endif

On x86, you can use the CPUID instruction with function 2 to determine various properties of the cache and the TLB. Parsing the output of function 2 is somewhat complicated, so I'll refer you to section 3.1.3 of the Intel Processor Identification and the CPUID Instruction (PDF).

To get this data from C/C++ code, you'll need to use inline assembly, compiler intrinsics, or call an external assembly function to perform the CPUID instruction.

If you're using SDL2 you can use this function:

int SDL_GetCPUCacheLineSize(void);

Which returns the size of the L1 cache line size, in bytes.

In my x86_64 machine, running this code snippet:

printf("CacheLineSize = %d",SDL_GetCPUCacheLineSize());

Produces CacheLineSize = 64

I know I'm a little late, but just adding information for future visitors. The SDL documentation currently says the number returned is in KB, but it is actually in bytes.

On the Windows platform:

from http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2009/12/08/9933836.aspx

The GetLogicalProcessorInformation function will give you characteristics of the logical processors in use by the system. You can walk the SYSTEM_LOGICAL_PROCESSOR_INFORMATION returned by the function looking for entries of type RelationCache. Each such entry contains a ProcessorMask which tells you which processor(s) the entry applies to, and in the CACHE_DESCRIPTOR, it tells you what type of cache is being described and how big the cache line is for that cache.

ARMv6 and above has C0 or the Cache Type Register. However, its only available in privileged mode.

For example, from Cortex™-A8 Technical Reference Manual:

The purpose of the Cache Type Register is to determine the instruction and data cache minimum line length in bytes to enable a range of addresses to be invalidated.

The Cache Type Register is:

• a read-only register
• accessible in privileged modes only.

The contents of the Cache Type Register depend on the specific implementation. Figure 3-2 shows the bit arrangement of the Cache Type Register...

---

Don't assume the ARM processor has a cache (apparently, some can be configured without one). The standard way to determine it is via C0. From the ARM ARM, page B6-6:

From ARMv6, the System Control Coprocessor Cache Type register is the mandated method to define the L1 caches, see Cache Type register on page B6-14. It is also the recommended method for earlier variants of the architecture. In addition, Considerations for additional levels of cache on page B6-12 describes architecture guidelines for level 2 cache support.