TLB

What is a Translation Lookaside Buffer (TLB)?

A Translation Lookaside Buffer, or TLB, is a small, fast hardware cache inside the CPU that stores recent virtual-to-physical address translations, so the MMU…

What is a Multilevel Page Table?

A multilevel page table splits a single flat page table into a hierarchy of smaller tables, where the virtual address is broken into multiple index fields that…

What Causes Context Switch Overhead and How Is It Reduced?

Context switch overhead comes from the direct cost of saving and restoring CPU state plus the indirect cost of losing cache, TLB, and pipeline warmth, and it i…

What is Associative Memory (Content-Addressable Memory)?

Associative memory, also called content-addressable memory (CAM), is memory that is searched by comparing a given value against all stored entries in parallel…

What are the Tradeoffs of Page Size?

Choosing a larger page size reduces page table size and TLB pressure and improves transfer efficiency for large sequential reads, while choosing a smaller page…