Memory Virtulization on MIPS Architecture

Memory virtualization is one of the most important methods to effectively abstract, utilize and separate computer's physic memory, and it decides overall performance of system virtualization. However, the traditional software-based methods often suffer from the inefficiency and complexity. The traditional hardware-assisted methods require the unavoidable re-design of the processor architecture. This paper presents a novel hardware-software co-designed method to accelerate the memory virtualization method on MIPS architecture processor. It improves the system performance without increasing any other hardware. This paper introduces MLASM (multiple layer address space model), which not only fills memory virtualization hole in MIPS architecture processor, but also enhances performance on the basis of the existing memory virtualization method. Meanwhile, this paper introduces (translation lookaside buffer, TLB) share method based on multiple layer address space, reduces the expenses when virtual machines are switching. Finally, a system virtual machine called VIRT-LOONGSON on MIPS architecture processor LOONGSON-3 is implemented. Performance evaluation shows that the proposed method can speedup most benchmark programs by nearly 3 to 5 times compared with binary translation method, and improves 5% to 16% performance compared with TLB simulation method.