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:
Dec. 24, 2013
Filed:
Dec. 05, 2006
Ernest S. Cohen, Wyncote, PA (US);
John Te-jui Sheu, Redmond, WA (US);
Landy Wang, Redmond, WA (US);
Matthew D. Hendel, Seattle, WA (US);
Rene Antonio Vega, Kirkland, WA (US);
Sharvil A. Nanavati, Dundas, CA;
Ernest S. Cohen, Wyncote, PA (US);
John Te-Jui Sheu, Redmond, WA (US);
Landy Wang, Redmond, WA (US);
Matthew D. Hendel, Seattle, WA (US);
Rene Antonio Vega, Kirkland, WA (US);
Sharvil A. Nanavati, Dundas, CA;
Microsoft Corporation, Redmond, WA (US);
Abstract
Various mechanisms are disclosed for improving the operational efficiency of a virtual translation look-aside buffer (TLB) in a virtual machine environment. For example, one mechanism fills in entries in a shadow page table (SPT) and additionally, speculatively fills in other entries in the SPT based on various heuristics. Another mechanism allows virtual TLBs (translation look-aside buffers) to cache partial walks in a guest page table tree. Still another mechanism allows for dynamic resizing of the virtual TLB to optimize for run-time characteristics of active workloads. Still another mechanism allows virtual machine monitors (VMMs) to support legacy and enlightened modes of virtual TLB operation. Finally, another mechanism allows the VMM to remove only the stale entries in SPTs when linking or switching address spaces. All these mechanisms, together or in part, increase the operational efficiency of the virtual TLB.