Managing the translation look-aside buffer (TLB) of an emulated machine

摘要

A mechanism is provided for managing the translation look-aside buffer (TLB) of an emulated computer, in which an extension to the TLB is provided so as to improve virtual address translation capacity for the emulated central processing unit (CPU).

主权项

1. A method for managing a translation look-aside buffer (TLB) of an emulated machine, the method comprising:
emulating a machine, the emulation comprising an emulated processor and an emulated translation look-aside buffer (TLB); defining an extended TLB storage arranged to provide an extension to the emulated TLB; in response to displacement of an entry from the emulated TLB, storing the displaced entry in the extended TLB storage; in response to a search of the emulated TLB failing to locate a requested TLB entry, searching the extended TLB storage for the requested TLB entry; returning a result of the search of the extended TLB storage; monitoring a number of invalid entries in the emulated TLB; and if the number of invalid entries equals a number of total non-locked entries in the emulated TLB, then flushing the extended TLB storage.