Sharing segments of storage by enabling the sharing of page tables
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsDonald Fred Ault, Harris M. Morgenstern, Danny Ray Sutherland
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Abstract
Segments of storage of a computer system are shared among any number of users at varying virtual addresses. The virtual addresses can be in the same address space or different address spaces. The sharing of a segment of storage is provided by storing the real address of a page table corresponding to the segment of storage to be shared at different virtual addresses. This allows users of the same or different address spaces to share the same segment of storage by referencing the same page table.
Claims40
A method of sharing segments of storage of a computer system, said method comprising:
- obtaining, at a first segment table offset and a first address, a pointer to a page table corresponding to a segment of storage to be shared;
- and
- storing said pointer to said page table at a second segment table offset and a second address different from said first segment table offset and said first address,
- wherein said first address and said second address reference the same page table, and therefore, the same segment of storage.
A method of sharing segments of storage of a computer system, said method comprising:
- identifying a segment of storage to be shared;
- locating a source segment table entry corresponding to the segment of storage to be shared;
- retrieving a pointer to a page table associated with said segment of storage to be shared from said source segment table entry;
- determining a target segment table entry to receive said pointer;
- and
- storing said pointer in said target segment table entry, wherein said pointer to the page table is located within a plurality of segment table entries at different addresses and different segment table offsets.
A system of sharing segments of storage of a computer environment, said system comprising:
- means for obtaining, at a first segment table offset and a first address, a pointer to a page table corresponding to a segment of storage to be shared;
- and
- means for storing said pointer to said page table at a second segment table offset and a second address different from said first segment table offset and said first address, wherein said first address and said second address reference the same page table, and therefore, the same segment of storage.
A system of sharing segments of storage of a computer environment, said system comprising:
- means for identifying a segment of storage to be shared;
- means for locating a source segment table entry corresponding to the segment of storage to be shared;
- means for retrieving a pointer to a page table associated with said segment of storage to be shared from said source segment table entry;
- means for determining a target segment table entry to receive said pointer;
- and
- means for storing said pointer in said target segment table entry, wherein said pointer to the page table is located within a plurality of segment table entries at different addresses and different segment table offsets.
An article of manufacture, comprising:
- at least one computer useable medium having computer readable program code means embodied therein for causing the sharing of segments of storage of a computer system, the computer readable program code means in said article of manufacture comprising:
- computer readable program code means for causing a computer to obtain, at a first segment table offset and a first address, a pointer to a page table corresponding to a segment of storage to be shared;
- and
- computer readable program code means for causing a computer to store said pointer to said page table at a second segment table offset and a second address different from said first segment table offset and said first address, wherein said first address and said second address reference the same page table, and therefore, the same segment of storage.
At least one program storage device readable by a machine, tangibly embodying at least one program of instructions executable by the machine to perform a method of sharing segments of storage of a computer system, said method comprising:
- identifying a segment of storage to be shared;
- locating a source segment table entry corresponding to the segment of storage to be shared;
- retrieving a pointer to a page table associated with said segment of storage to be shared from said source segment table entry;
- determining a target segment table entry to receive said pointer;
- and
- storing said pointer in said target segment table entry, wherein said pointer to the page table is located within a plurality of segment table entries at different addresses and different segment table offsets.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.