A method or device handles memory management faults in a device having a
digital signal processor ("DSP") and a microprocessor. The DSP includes a
memory management unit ("DSP MMU") to manage memory access by the DSP,
and the DSP and the microprocessor access shared physical memory. Upon
the DSP executing an instruction attempting to access a virtual address
wherein the virtual address is invalid, a page fault interrupt is
generated by the DSP MMU. A microprocessor interrupt handler in the
microprocessor is activated in direct response to the page fault
interrupt. Thereafter in the microprocessor, a translation lookaside
buffer ("TLB") entry is created in the DSP MMU, which includes a valid
mapping between the virtual address and a page of physical memory. After
creating the TLB entry, the microprocessor indicates to the DSP that the
access by the DSP of the virtual address is completed.