Memory allocation method and apparatus with an even distribution of cache page addresses within virtual memory regions

摘要

A method and apparatus for mapping physical addresses to virtual addresses in a computer system is provided. The virtual memory may be apportioned into a plurality of regions, such as global and private regions. The physical memory is apportioned into a number of pages. The computer system includes a temporary storage device, such as a cache, for storing data from a subset of the pages in memory. The cache is apportioned into a number of regions corresponding to the number of regions of virtual memory. Each of the pages stored in the cache are accessed using a cache page address, and accordingly cache page addresses are reserved for each region. Virtual addresses in each region are mapped to physical addresses associated with cache page addresses of the corresponding cache region in response to a monitored use of the cache page addresses. By mapping virtual addresses in each region of virtual memory to physical addresses associated with cache page addresses reserved for the region, thrashing at the cache between virtual addresses in different regions is eliminated and the overall performance of the computer system is enhanced.