<p>In C and C++ a variable can be marked as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volatile_variable" rel="noreferrer"><strong>volatile</strong></a>, which means the compiler will not optimize it because it may be modified external to the declaring object.  Is there an equivalent in Delphi programming?  If not a keyword, maybe a work around?</p>

<p>My thought was to use <strong>Absolute</strong>, but I wasn't sure, and that may introduce other side effects.</p>

I don't know of any equivalent, nor do I think that the
absolute
directive will help you.
absolute
allows you to have two variables that use the same address, but I do not think it will prevent the compiler from optimising references to that memory.
I imagine you could use a pointer and manage it yourself. That way whatever the compiler does as far as optimising retrival of the pointer value, it should not assume the value stored at the address is the same as last time it read it, but this is pure speculation.