VMware, Inc.
Consolidating shared state for translation lookaside buffer shootdowns

Abstract:

Techniques for consolidating shared state for translation lookaside buffer (TLB) shootdowns are provided. In one set of embodiments, an operating system (OS) kernel of a computer system can co-locate, in a system memory of the computer system, a plurality of shared data accessed by first and second processing cores of the computer system for performing a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) shootdown of the first processing core by the second processing core, where the co-locating allows the plurality of shared data to occupy a single cache line when brought from the system memory into a CPU (central processing unit) cache of the first or second processing core. This can include, e.g., (1) co-locating a lazy mode indicator and a call function queue (CFQ) head element of the first processing core, such that these two data components occupy the same cache line, and (2) co-locating a TLB flush info entry and a call function data (CFD) entry created by the second processing core at the time of initiating the TLB shootdown, such that these two data components occupy the same cache line.