Virtualizing memory type

US7370160B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• Intel Corporation · US

Inventors

• Gilbert Neiger · Portland, US
• Steven M. Bennett · Hillsboro, US
• Andrew V. Anderson · Forest Grove, US
• Dion Rodgers · Hillsboro, US
• David A. Koufaty · Portland, US
• Richard Uhlig · Hillsboro, US
• Camron Rust · Hillsboro, US
• Larry Smith · Beaverton, US
• Rupin H. Vakharwala · Hillsboro, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jun 29, 2005
• Grant date: May 6, 2008
• Expiry date: Mar 26, 2026

Classification

• Technology area (CPC G): Physics
• CPC primary: G06F9/45537
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A processor, capable of operation in a host machine, including memory management logic to support a plurality of memory types for a physical memory access by the processor, and virtualization support logic to determine a host memory type for a reference to a memory location by a guest in a virtual machine executable on the processor based at least in part on a memory type field stored in an entry of an extended paging table of a virtualization support system of the host machine (extended memory type field), to determine a guest memory type for the reference to the memory location, and to determine an effective memory type based on at least one of the host memory type and the guest memory type.