Patent · US Expired

Configurable memory management unit

US6854046B1 · kind B1 · utility

51Cited by
7References
34Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateAug 5, 2002
Grant dateFeb 8, 2005
Priority date
Expiry dateMar 26, 2023

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC G)Physics
  • CPC primaryG06F12/1036
  • WIPO fieldComputer technology
  • WIPO sectorElectrical engineering

Abstract

An MMU provides services at a cost more directly proportional to the needs of the system. According to one aspect, the MMU provides both address translation and sophisticated protection capabilities. Translation and protection are desirable when applications running on the processor are not completely debugged or trustable, for example. According to another aspect, a system for configuring the MMU design according to user specifications and system needs is provided. The MMU configurability aspects enable the system designer to configure MMUs having run-time programmability features that span the range from completely static to completely dynamic. In addition, the MMU can be configured to support variable page sizes, multiple protection and sharing rings, demand paging, and hardware TLB refill, for example.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.