Apple Inc.
Translation lookaside buffer invalidation by range

Abstract:

A system and method for efficiently performing maintenance on a cache. In various embodiments, control logic in a cache controller or elsewhere receives an indication for invalidating a range of virtual-to-physical mappings in a given translation lookaside buffer (TLB). The logic determines a first latency to invalidate entries of the TLB based on a number of addresses in the range and a number of supported page sizes simultaneously stored in the TLB. The logic determines a second latency based on a number of entries in the TLB. If the first latency is greater, then the logic traverses through each TLB entry and invalidates TLB entries storing a virtual address within the range. If the first latency is smaller, then the logic traverses through each address in the range and invalidates TLB entries storing a virtual address within the range.