Software-Managed Address Translation

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1997-02

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"Software-managed address translation." Bruce L Jacob and Trevor N Mudge. Proc. Third International Symposium on High Performance Computer Architecture (HPCA'97), pp. 156-167, San Antonio TX, February 1997.

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Abstract

In this paper we explore software-managed address translation. The purpose of the study is to specify the memory management design for a high clock-rate PowerPC implementation in which a simple design is a prerequisite for a fast clock and a short design cycle. We show that software-managed address translation is just as efficient as hardware- managed address translation, and it is much more flexible. Operating systems such as OSF/1 and Mach charge between 0.10 and 0.28 cycles per instruction (CPI) for address translation using dedicated memory-management hardware. Software-managed translation requires 0.05 CPI. Mechanisms to support such features as shared memory, superpages, sub-page protection, and sparse address spaces can be defined completely in software, allowing much more flexibility than in hardware-defined mechanisms.

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