Method for shared translation for look-aside buffer

Abstract

A shared translation look-aside buffer method comprises saving data stored in a first selected set of registers to a predetermined section of a thread-specific area in memory upon encountering an exception / interrupt, re-enabling exceptions and optionally interrupts, addressing a cause of the exception / interrupt while safely permitting another exception, and restoring the saved data to the first selected set of registers.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates generally to the field of processors, and more particularly to shared translation lookaside buffers and methods. Background technique [0002] A Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB) is a cache memory used to store currently used virtual-to-physical address translations. When a processor needs to access a memory location indicated by a virtual address, it queries the translation lookaside buffer for the memory location's corresponding physical address. If the translation lookaside buffer contains a given virtual address, it is a "hit" and the processor is provided the corresponding physical address. When a given virtual address is not in the translation lookaside buffer, then it is a "miss" and the processor must search or "walk" the page tables to find the corresponding physical address. The physical addresses are then provided or "filled" into the translation lookaside buffer. However, in the presence of a shared transla...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, this is not feasible in some applications since providing a translation lookaside buffer for each thread is expensive and inefficient

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