Translation look-aside buffer
AssigneeHewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
InventorErin A. Handgen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A translation look-aside buffer (TLB) is described. The TLB may include a memory populated with pointers to collections (e.g., tables) of virtual-to-physical address translations. The memory may be populated by, for example, a page fault logic in response to resolving a page fault. The TLB may also include a signal logic to receive a virtual address and to selectively provide either a miss signal or a pointer to a collection of virtual-to-physical translations. The signal may provide the miss signal upon determining that the virtual address is not associated with a stored pointer and may provide a pointer upon determining that the virtual address is associated with the pointer.
Claims14
A translation look-aside buffer (TLB), comprising:
- a memory storing a set of pointers, without storing virtual-to-physical address translations, wherein the set of pointers are to a set of tables of virtual-to-physical address translations;
- and
- a signal logic to:
- receive a virtual address;
- provide a miss signal upon determining that the virtual address is not associated with one of the set of pointers;
- and
- provide a pointer to one of the tables of virtual-to-physical address translations upon determining that the virtual address is associated with one of the set of pointers.
A system, comprising:
- a translation look-aside buffer (TLB) comprising:
- a content addressable memory (CAM) to store a set of pointers to locate virtual-to-physical page number translations stored outside the TLB, wherein the CAM provides a miss signal upon determining that no CAM entry corresponds to a received virtual page number, wherein the CAM provides one of the set of pointers upon determining that a CAM entry corresponds to the received virtual page number, and wherein the CAM is to not store virtual-to-physical page number translations, and
- a page fault logic to populate the CAM with the set of pointers for locating virtual-to-physical page number translations stored outside the TLB in response to resolving a page fault.
A translation look-aside buffer (TLB), comprising:
- a memory to store a set of pointers, without storing virtual-to-physical address translations, wherein the set of pointers are to tables of virtual-to-physical address translations;
- and
- a signal logic to:
- receive a virtual address;
- provide a miss signal upon determining that the virtual address is not associated with any of the set of pointers;
- and
- provide one of the set of pointers to one of the tables of virtual-to-physical address translations upon determining that the virtual address is associated with one of the set of pointers.
A method, comprising:
- storing a virtual-to-physical page number translation in a physical memory located outside a translation look-aside buffer (TLB), the TLB not storing any virtual-to-physical address translations;
- storing in the TLB a set of pointers to the physical memory;
- providing a TLB-miss signal in response to determining that the TLB includes no information about a requested virtual-to-physical address translation stored in the physical memory located outside the TLB;
- and
- providing a TLB-hit signal in response to determining that the TLB does include a pointer to the requested virtual-to-physical address translation, where the TLB-hit signal includes the pointer.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.