Virtual memory mapping using region-based page tables

A system comprising:

• a processor having access to a physical memory space;
• and
• a virtual address mapper coupled to the processor to map virtual memory space into the physical memory space, the virtual address mapper comprising:
• a region register file to provide a region identifier for a virtual address in the virtual memory space using a virtual region number, the region identifier identifying a region mapped to by the virtual address, the virtual address including the virtual region number and a virtual page number, and
• a virtual page table look-up circuit coupled to the region register file to generate a page table entry (PTE) virtual address from virtual address parameters using an index obtained from the virtual page number, the virtual address parameters including the virtual address and a region page size used in providing the index.

A computer program product comprising:

• a computer usable medium having computer program code embodied therein to map virtual memory space, the computer program product having:
• computer readable program code for providing a region identifier for a virtual address in the virtual memory space using a virtual region number, the region identifier identifying a region mapped to by the virtual address, the virtual address including the virtual region number and a virtual page number;
• and
• computer readable program code for generating a page table entry (PTE) virtual address from virtual address parameters using an index obtained from the virtual page number, the virtual address parameters including the virtual address and a region page size used in providing the index.