The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Jul. 07, 1981
Filed:
Oct. 23, 1978
Robert W Collins, Rochester, MN (US);
Roy L Hoffman, Pine Island, MN (US);
Larry W Loen, Rochester, MN (US);
Glen R Mitchell, Pine Island, MN (US);
Frank G Soltis, Rochester, MN (US);
Other;
Abstract
An apparatus provides synchronization for page replacement control in a paged, virtual memory environment in which either the CPU or the I/O devices may pin and unpin pages to control their replacement by the paging supervisor. Pinning and unpinning of pages by the I/O devices occurs independently of pinning and unpinning performed by the CPU. Synchronization is achieved by means of a virtual address translation mechanism which is common to the CPU and the I/O devices. The virtual address translation mechanism includes a primary directory having entries for each page in main storage, with each entry containing a field in which the pinning and unpinning operations by the CPU and the I/O devices are registered. In particular, this field is a counter which is incremented when a page is pinned by either the CPU or an I/O device and decremented when a page is unpinned. Each page directory entry also includes a field for indicating that references to the page corresponding to a given page directory entry are invalid. When it is determined that a particular page is no longer in use and is eligible for replacement, the page directory entry is set to indicate that further references to the page are invalid. When an I/O device gives up a buffer page, that page is unpinned. Buffer pages newly acquired by the I/O device are pinned when they are acquired by the device and have become available in main storage.