title: Performance of ThreadLocal variable
body: <p>How much is read from <code>ThreadLocal</code> variable slower than from regular field?</p>
  
  <p>More concretely is simple object creation faster or slower than access to <code>ThreadLocal</code> variable?</p>
  
  <p>I assume that it is fast enough so that having <code>ThreadLocal&lt;MessageDigest&gt;</code> instance is much faster then creating instance of <code>MessageDigest</code> every time. But does that also apply for byte[10] or byte[1000] for example?</p>
  
  <p>Edit: Question is what is really going on when calling <code>ThreadLocal</code>'s get? If that is just a field, like any other, then answer would be "it's always fastest", right?</p>