The Linux Virtual Memory System: Page Table Structure
Explore the Linux virtual memory system focusing on the x86 architecture's multi-level page table structure. Understand how page tables manage address translation and the impact of moving from 32-bit to 64-bit x86 systems on virtual memory management.
We'll cover the following...
We'll cover the following...
Page-table structure provided by x86
Because we are focused on Linux for x86, our discussion will center on the type of page-table structure provided by x86, as it determines what Linux can and cannot do. As mentioned before, x86 provides a hardware-managed, multi-level page table structure, with one-page table per process; the OS simply sets up mappings in its memory, points a privileged register at the start of the page directory, and the hardware handles the rest. The OS gets ...