Various embodiments of the present invention are directed to efficient
provision, by a virtual-machine monitor, of a virtual, physical memory
interface to guest operating systems and other programs and routines
interfacing to a computer system through a virtual-machine interface. In
one embodiment of the present invention, a virtual-machine monitor
maintains control over a translation lookaside buffer ("TLB"), machine
registers which control virtual memory translations, and a processor page
table, providing each concurrently executing guest operating system with
a guest-processor-page table and guest-physical memory-to-physical memory
translations. In one embodiment, a virtual-machine monitor can rely on
hardware virtual-address-translation mechanisms for the bulk of
virtual-address translations needed during guest-operating-system
execution, thus providing a guest-physical memory interface without
introducing excessive overhead and inefficiency.