Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory – Address formation – Address mapping
Patent
1997-09-23
2000-08-29
Chan, Eddie P.
Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory
Address formation
Address mapping
711206, 711209, 711205, 711212, 711203, G06F 1200
Patent
active
061122858
ABSTRACT:
A system, method and computer program product for virtual memory support for TLBs with multiple page sizes that require only minor revisions to existing operating system code and remains compatible with existing applications. The virtual memory support provided herein is transparent to many existing operating system procedures and application programs. Various page sizes such as 4 KB, 64 KB, 256 KB, 1 MB, 4 MB and 16 MB page sizes can be used by application programs and each process can use multiple page sizes. Base page sized PTEs and data structures associated with physical pages (PFDATs) are maintained. Maintaining PFDATs and PTEs at a base page level facilitates upgrading and downgrading of memory pages. In addition, different processes can have different views of the same data. Support is provided for upgrading and downgrading memory pages. Examples of operating system methods that can be used for virtual memory support for multiple page sized TLBs are provided herein. Such examples include downgrading and upgrading memory pages, large page faulting and prefaulting, large page validation and page table entry setup.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4577274 (1986-03-01), Ho et al.
patent: 5058003 (1991-10-01), White
patent: 5101485 (1992-03-01), Perazzoli, Jr.
patent: 5446854 (1995-08-01), Khalidi et al.
patent: 5465337 (1995-11-01), Kong
patent: 5727178 (1998-03-01), Pletcher et al.
patent: 5873127 (1999-02-01), Harvey et al.
Hennessy and Patterson, Computer Architecture: A Quantitative Approach, 2.sup.nd Ed., pp. ix-xii, 439-457 and 634-760, Morgan and Kaufman Publishing, USA 1996.
Schimmel, UNIX System for Modern Architectures: Symmetric Multiprocessing and Caching for Kernel Programmers, Addison-Wesley Professional Computing Series, 1994, pp. vii-xiv, 5-12 and 59-81.
Khalidi et al., "Virtual Memory Support for Multiple Page Sizes", Sun MicroSystems Laboratories, Inc., Sep. 1993.
Romer et al., "Reducing TLB and Memory Overhead Using Online Superpage Promotion", Proceedings of the 22.sup.nd Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture, 1995.
Talluria, Madhusudhan and Mark D. Hill, "Surpassing the TLB Performance of Superpages with Less Operating System Support", Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and operating Systems, Oct. 1994.
Talluri et al., "A New Page Table for 64-bit Address Spaces", Proceedings of SOSP 1995.
Goodheart, B. and Cox, J., The Magic Garden Explained: The Internals of UNIX.RTM. System V Release 4, An Open Systems Design, Prentice-Hall, 1994, pp. 69-140.
Talluri et al. "Virtual Memory Support for Multiple Pages", Sep. 1993.
Romer et al., "Reducing TLB and Memory Overhead Using SuperPage Promotion", Proceedings of the 22nd Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture, Dec. 1995.
Talluri et al., "Surpassing the TLB Performance of SuperPages with Less Operating System Support", Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Architectural Support for Programming Languages and Operating Systems, Oct. 1994.
Talluri et al., "A New PAge Table for 64-bit Address Spaces", Proceedings of SOSP Dec. 1995.
Ganapathy Narayanan
Schimmel Curt F.
Stevens Luis F.
Chan Eddie P.
McLean Kimberly
Silicon Graphics Inc.
LandOfFree
Method, system and computer program product for virtual memory s does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Method, system and computer program product for virtual memory s, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Method, system and computer program product for virtual memory s will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-1259706