The Global assembly cache (GAC) stores assemblies specifically designated to be shared by several applications on the computer. Assemblies deployed in the global assembly cache must have a strong name. When an assembly is added to the global assembly cache, integrity checks are performed on all files that make up the assembly. GAC physically creates directories for each version of assembly. The Global Assembly Cache (GAC), when viewed using Explorer, has its view rendered in a special manner by the OS shell. When an Assembly is added to GAC these are the attributes that it takes.

·         Assembly Name – Name of the Assembly

·         Version – Version [Major-Minor-Revision-Build]

·         Culture – Culture will be null for normal Assembly

·         Public Key Token - This is a 64-bit hash of the public key which makes the assembly name unique

·         Processor Architecture – Either MSIL or x86