Method and apparatus for providing a shared data region using shared page tables

摘要

A method and apparatus for providing a shared data region for use by multiple user processes executing in a computer system is described. A multi-level page table hierarchy is used to perform virtual to physical address translation for a shared data region. The multi-level page table hierarchy includes 3 levels of page tables in which the third level of page tables associated with the shared data region are commonly shared amongst processes accessing data in the shared data region. Tasks involved in the memory management of the shared data region are allocated between PMAP (physical mapping) routines and VM (virtual memory) abstraction routines. The PMAP routines generally perform hardware dependent memory management operations, and the VM abstraction routines generally perform operating system dependent memory management operations. <IMAGE>