Apparatus and method for efficient process-based compartmentalization

Abstract

An apparatus and method for efficient process-based compartmentalization. For example, one embodiment of a processor comprises: execution circuitry to execute instructions and process data; memory management circuitry coupled to the execution circuitry, the memory management circuitry to manage access to a system memory by a plurality of related processes using one or more process-specific translation structures and one or more shared translation structures to be shared by the related processes; and one or more control registers to store a process-specific base address pointer associated with a first process of the plurality of related processes and to store a shared base address pointer to identify the shared translation structures; wherein the memory management circuitry is to use the process-specific base address pointer in combination with a first linear address provided by the first process to walk the process-specific translation structures to identify any permissions and/or physical address associated with the first linear address, wherein if permissions are identified, the memory management circuitry is to use the permissions in place of any permissions specified in the shared translation structures.