A method and system to indicate which page within a software-managed page
table triggers an exception within a microprocessor, such as, for
example, a digital signal processor, wherein a software-managed
translation lookaside buffer (TLB) module receives a virtual address
produced by an instruction within a Very Long Instruction Word (VLIW)
packet, such as, for example, a fetch instruction, and further compares
the virtual address to each stored TLB entry. If a match exists, then the
TLB module outputs a corresponding mapped physical address for the
instruction. Otherwise, if the VLIW packet spans two pages, where a first
page is present as a TLB entry within the TLB module and the second page
is missing from the stored TLB entries, an indication bit within a data
field of a control register is set to identify the TLB miss exception to
a software management unit. The software management unit retrieves the
indication bit information from the register and further performs a page
table look-up within the software-managed page table using the indication
bit information in order to retrieve the missing page information.
Subsequently, the missing page information is written into a new TLB
entry within the TLB module for subsequent virtual address translation
and execution of the packet of instructions.