Address translation prefetching for input/output devices

A method comprising:

• sending, by a CPU core of a processor, a direct memory access (DMA) stream setup command to an input/output (I/O) device, the DMA stream setup command comprising a virtual address;
• and
• sending, from the CPU core of the processor, a prefetch message comprising the virtual address to an input/output memory management unit (IOMMU) to cause the IOMMU to:
• prefetch a translation of the virtual address into a corresponding physical address from a main memory;
• and
• store the translation of the virtual address into the corresponding physical address in a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) of the IOMMU.

A computing device comprising:

• a processor comprising:
• a central processing unit (CPU) core;
• and
• a system memory management unit (SMMU) comprising a translation lookaside buffer (TLB);
• a main memory storing a page table;
• and
• an input/output (I/O) device connected to the processor and the main memory via an interconnect,
• the CPU core being configured to:
• transmit a direct memory access (DMA) stream setup command to the I/O device, the DMA stream setup command comprising a virtual address;
• and
• transmit a prefetch message comprising the virtual address to the SMMU to cause the SMMU to:
• prefetch a translation of the virtual address into a corresponding physical address from a main memory;
• and
• store the translation of the virtual address into the corresponding physical address in the TLB of the SMMU.