Thread Caching and Java Memory model

Question

I\'m trying to understand the Java memory model and threads. As fas has I understand, each thread has a local copy of the \"main\" memory. So if one thread tries to change a

Answer 1

CPU have different level caches L1, L2, L3. Every CPU (and also /may CPU Core) has own cache. This caches store minimal set of main memory (RAM) for performance.

  _______________    ______________  
 |     CPU 1     |  |     CPU 2    |  
 |   _________   |  |   _________  |  
 |  | Level 1 |  |  |  | Level 1 | |  
 |  |   Cache |  |  |  |  Cache  | |  
 |  |         |  |  |  |         | |
 |  |_________|  |  |  |_________| |  
 |_______________|  |______________|
           | |              | |
           | |              | |
          _|_|______________|_|__
         |                       |
         |      MAIN MEMORY      | 
         |_______________________|


  Time     Command                 CPU 1 (Cache)      CPU 2 (Cache)        Main Memory     
-------  ----------              ----------------    --------------       -------------
  1          ---                       ---                ---                x = 10
  2       Read x  (on cpu1)           x = 10              ---                x = 10
  3       Write x <--20 (on cpu1)     x = 20              ---                x = 10       
  4       Read  x (on cpu2)           x = 20              x = 10             x = 10
  5       put cache to Main mem       x = 20              x = 10             x = 20

For example, Above execution order, x value is wrong on CPU2. x value already changed by CPU1. If x variable is defined as volatile, all write operation reflect to main memory instantly.