A sharing mechanism is herein disclosed for multiple logical processors
using a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) to translate virtual addresses
into physical addresses. The mechanism supports sharing of TLB entries
among logical processors, which may access address spaces in common. The
mechanism further supports private TLB entries among logical processors,
which may each access a different physical address through identical
virtual addresses. The sharing mechanism provides for installation and
updating of TLB entries as private entries or as shared entries
transparently, without requiring special operating system support or
modifications. Sharability of virtual address translations by logical
processors may be determined by comparing page table physical base
addresses of the logic processors. Using the disclosed sharing mechanism,
fast and efficient virtual address translation is provided without
requiring more expensive functional redundancy.