Providing access to physical memory allocated to a process by selectively mapping pages of the physical memory with virtual memory allocated to the process
US6477612B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Feb 8, 2000 |
| Grant date | Nov 5, 2002 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Feb 8, 2020 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG06F2212/682
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A system and method for providing applications with the ability to access an increased amount of memory. An application maps a specified address range in its (small) virtual memory space to a corresponding number of pages allocated thereto in (relatively large) physical memory. When the application accesses an address in that range in virtual memory, e.g., via a thirty-two-bit address, the mapping information is used to access the corresponding page currently pointed to in the physical memory, allowing access to significantly greater amounts of memory. Fine granularity of access (e.g., one page) is provided, along with fast remapping, cross-process security and coherency across multiple processors in a multiprocessor system. To this end, a memory manager maintains information related to the mapping of virtual addresses to physical pages, in order to verify remap requests and invalidate existing mappings from a virtual address to a previously mapped physical page. For coherency in a multi-processor system, a list is maintained for invalidating existing mappings in the translation buffers of other processors in a consolidated operation, thereby requiring only a single interrupt of ea…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.