= Basic TLB operation
After a translation between linear and physical address happens, it is stored on the TLB. For example, a 4 entry TLB starts in the following state:
``
valid linear physical
----- ------ --------
> 0 00000 00000
0 00000 00000
0 00000 00000
0 00000 00000
``
The `>` indicates the current entry to be replaced.
And after a page linear address `00003` is translated to a physical address `00005`, the TLB becomes:
``
valid linear physical
----- ------ --------
1 00003 00005
> 0 00000 00000
0 00000 00000
0 00000 00000
``
and after a second translation of `00007` to `00009` it becomes:
``
valid linear physical
----- ------ --------
1 00003 00005
1 00007 00009
> 0 00000 00000
0 00000 00000
``
Now if `00003` needs to be translated again, hardware first looks up the TLB and finds out its address with a single RAM access `00003 --> 00005`.
Of course, `00000` is not on the TLB since no valid entry contains `00000` as a key.
Back to article page