VIP: Address translation for fast Memory block moves

In today's computer world, memory operations that require processor intervention are branded \costly". This paper addresses one such problem { moving block data in physical memory. Current techniques for doing memory block moves involve the processor and are extremely slow. The VIP mechanism presented in this paper separates the logical placement of data in memory from the actual or physical placement. This is done by introducing another level of indirection (an intermediate address) in the virutal to physical address translation process. Using the VIP mechanism, memory block moves can be achieved by simply manipulating the intermediate to physical mapping and leaving the data as it is in physical memory. Moves will now be able to proceed an order of magnitude faster than before. We evaluated the VIP mechanism by using it in the context of superpages. The ability to move pages fast, allowed the creation of more superpages, resulting in reducing the TLB miss rate from 1.5 { 1.9% to less than 0.01%.