Physical pages de-allocation method for virtual addressing machine

A line de-allocation process for a cache mechanism comprising:

• a high-speed access memory having a plurality of lines of data, the lines containing virtual to physical address mappings, an indicator, and an attribute, the indicator indicating if the line is in a referenced or non-referenced state, the indicator being set to the referenced state by a processor when the line is accessed,
• a first pointer which points to a first line of the high-speed access memory,
• said de-allocation process examining the first line pointed to by the first pointer and either sets the indicator to the non-referenced state if the indicator is in the referenced state or de-allocating the line if the indicator is in the non-referenced state,
• a second pointer which points to a second line of the high-speed access memory, the second line being n lines away from the first line (n being an integer greater than zero),
• said de-allocation process examining the second line pointed to by the second pointer and based upon the attribute of the second line, setting the indicator to the non-referenced state if the indicator is in the referenced state.

A physical page de-allocation process for a virtual addressing mechanism comprising:

• a conversion table having a plurality of lines of data, the lines containing virtual to physical address mappings, an indicator, and a first attribute, the indicator indicating if the line is in a referenced or non-referenced state, the indicator being set to the referenced state by a processor when the line is accessed,
• a first pointer which points to a first line of the conversion table,
• said de-allocation process examining the first line pointed to by the first pointer and either sets the indicator to the non-referenced state if the indicator is in the referenced state or de-allocating the line if the indicator is in the non-referenced state,
• a second pointer which points to a second line of the conversion table, the second line being n lines away from the first line (n being an integer greater than zero),
• said de-allocation process examining the second line pointed to by the second pointer and based upon a second attribute of the second line, setting the indicator to the non-referenced state if the indicator is in the referenced state.