If your Oracle Database fits into the buffer cache, we will put all segments into it now upon access – no more direct reads:

SQL> connect / as sysdba
Connected.
SQL> select banner from v$version;

BANNER
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oracle Database 12c Enterprise Edition Release 12.1.0.2.0 - 64bit Production
PL/SQL Release 12.1.0.2.0 - Production
CORE	12.1.0.2.0	Production
TNS for Linux: Version 12.1.0.2.0 - Production
NLSRTL Version 12.1.0.2.0 - Production

SQL> select sum(bytes)/1024/1024 as mb from v$datafile;

	MB
----------
      1424

SQL> select current_size from v$buffer_pool;

CURRENT_SIZE
------------
	1872

The requirements are met here, I don’t need to force anything:

SQL> select force_full_db_caching from v$database;

FORCE_FUL
---------
NO

SQL> select bytes/1024/1024 as mb from dba_segments 
     where owner='ADAM' and segment_name='SALES';

	MB
----------
       600

SQL> select count(*) from adam.sales;

  COUNT(*)
----------
  10000000

SQL> show parameter parallel_degree_policy

NAME				     TYPE
------------------------------------ ---------------------------------
VALUE
------------------------------
parallel_degree_policy		     string
MANUAL

The table got accessed once and is now loaded into the buffer cache. PARALLEL_DEGREE_POLICY is on the default MANUAL, remember that.

SQL> connect adam/adam
Connected.
SQL> select name,value from v$mystat natural join v$statname 
     where name in ('physical reads','physical reads direct','session logical reads');

NAME							VALUE
-------------------------------------------------- ----------
session logical reads					   42
physical reads						    0
physical reads direct					    0

SQL> select count(*) from sales;

  COUNT(*)
----------
  10000000

SQL> select name,value from v$mystat natural join v$statname 
     where name in ('physical reads','physical reads direct','session logical reads');

NAME							VALUE
-------------------------------------------------- ----------
session logical reads					75620
physical reads						    0
physical reads direct					    0

Only logical reads, because the table is in the buffer cache. Also for parallel queries:

SQL> select /*+ parallel (sales,4) */ max(amount_sold) from sales;

MAX(AMOUNT_SOLD)
----------------
	    5000

SQL> select * from v$pq_sesstat;

STATISTIC					   LAST_QUERY SESSION_TOTAL	CON_ID
-------------------------------------------------- ---------- ------------- ----------
Queries Parallelized					    1		  1	     0
DML Parallelized					    0		  0	     0
DDL Parallelized					    0		  0	     0
DFO Trees						    1		  1	     0
Server Threads						    4		  0	     0
Allocation Height					    4		  0	     0
Allocation Width					    1		  0	     0
Local Msgs Sent 					  156		156	     0
Distr Msgs Sent 					    0		  0	     0
Local Msgs Recv'd					  156		156	     0
Distr Msgs Recv'd					    0		  0	     0
DOP							    4		  0	     0
Slave Sets						    1		  0	     0

13 rows selected.

SQL> select name,value from v$mystat natural join v$statname 
     where name in ('physical reads','physical reads direct','session logical reads');

NAME							VALUE
-------------------------------------------------- ----------
session logical reads				       152410
physical reads						    0
physical reads direct					    0

SQL> select name,value from v$sysstat where name='physical reads direct';

NAME							VALUE
-------------------------------------------------- ----------
physical reads direct					   21

SQL> select /*+ parallel (sales,4) */ max(amount_sold) from sales;

MAX(AMOUNT_SOLD)
----------------
	    5000

SQL> select name,value from v$sysstat where name='physical reads direct';

NAME							VALUE
-------------------------------------------------- ----------
physical reads direct					   21

Looks like I did In-Memory Parallel Query although PARALLEL_DEGREE_POLICY is on MANUAL, doesn’t it? Just for comparison, I did the same with an 11g version:

SQL> select banner from v$version;

BANNER
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oracle Database 11g Enterprise Edition Release 11.2.0.3.0 - 64bit Production
PL/SQL Release 11.2.0.3.0 - Production
CORE	11.2.0.3.0	Production
TNS for Linux: Version 11.2.0.3.0 - Production
NLSRTL Version 11.2.0.3.0 - Production

SQL> select sum(bytes)/1024/1024 as mb from v$datafile;

	MB
----------
      1090

SQL> select current_size from v$buffer_pool;

CURRENT_SIZE
------------
	1200

SQL> select bytes/1024/1024 as mb from dba_segments where owner='ADAM' and segment_name='SALES';

	MB
----------
       528


SQL> select count(*) from adam.sales;

  COUNT(*)
----------
  10000000

SQL> show parameter parallel_degree_policy

NAME				     TYPE			       VALUE
------------------------------------ --------------------------------- ---------
parallel_degree_policy		     string			       MANUAL

SQL> connect adam/adam
Connected.
SQL> select name,value from v$mystat natural join v$statname 
     where name in ('physical reads','physical reads direct','session logical reads');

NAME									    VALUE
---------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------
session logical reads							       26
physical reads									0
physical reads direct								0

SQL> select count(*) from sales;

  COUNT(*)
----------
  10000000

SQL> select name,value from v$mystat natural join v$statname 
     where name in ('physical reads','physical reads direct','session logical reads');

NAME									    VALUE
---------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------
session logical reads							    67465
physical reads								    67433
physical reads direct							    67433

SQL> select /*+ parallel (sales,4) */ max(amount_sold) from sales;

MAX(AMOUNT_SOLD)
----------------
	    5000

SQL> select * from v$pq_sesstat;

STATISTIC				   LAST_QUERY SESSION_TOTAL
------------------------------------------ ---------- -------------
Queries Parallelized				    1		  1
DML Parallelized				    0		  0
DDL Parallelized				    0		  0
DFO Trees					    1		  1
Server Threads					    4		  0
Allocation Height				    4		  0
Allocation Width				    1		  0
Local Msgs Sent 				  116		116
Distr Msgs Sent 				    0		  0
Local Msgs Recv'd				  116		116
Distr Msgs Recv'd				    0		  0

11 rows selected.

SQL> select name,value from v$mystat natural join v$statname 
     where name in ('physical reads','physical reads direct','session logical reads');

NAME									    VALUE
---------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------
session logical reads							   135115
physical reads								   134866
physical reads direct							   134866

As you can see, I got direct reads in 11g for both the serial and the parallel query.
Do not confuse this feature with the In-Memory Option, it is much less sophisticated than that. But it doesn’t come with an extra charge at least 🙂