Explicit instructions are provided that enable software to directly control insertion of information into a translation lookaside buffer (TLB). A first pair of instructions enable information to be inserted into a data TLB and a second pair of instructions enable information to be inserted into an instruction TLB. In each of these pairs, the first instruction inserts the virtual address and the associated physical address. In response to the second instruction of each of these pairs, additional information about that physical page, such as protection information and flags, is inserted.