Method and apparatus for accessing more than 4 Gigabytes of physical memory with 4-byte table entries
US6289431A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jan 26, 1998 |
| Grant date | Sep 11, 2001 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jan 26, 2018 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F12/1009
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A method and apparatus for accessing pages in physical memory, where the physical memory is described. The present invention provides a paged memory system having multiple page sizes. Pages of a first size are accessed via a page directory entry and a corresponding page table entry. The page directory entry stores a base physical address for a corresponding page table and control bits indicating permissions. The page table entry stores a base physical address of the page in memory. In one embodiment, the page table entry inherits permissions from the page directory entry. Pages of a second size are accessed via a page directory entry that stores a base physical address of the page and control bits indicating permissions associated with the page. In another embodiment, entries to the page directory table and the page table are 4-bytes in size and provide paging for memory up to 1.1 Terabytes in size.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.