Multi-granularity page size support for Linux and the performance evaluation

Abstract

Today the PC class machines are quite popular for HPC area, especially on the problemsthat require the good cost/performance ratios. One of the drawback of these machines is the poormemory throughput performance. And one of the reasons of the poor performance is depend on the lack of the mapping capability of the TLB which is a buffer to accelerate the virtual memory access. In this report, I present that the mapping capability and the performance can be improved with the multi-granularity TLB feature that some processors have. And I also present that the new TLB handling routine can be incorporated into the demand paging system of Linux.