Questions tagged [mmu]

Please provide some details of the particular MMU in questions.

The Memory Management Unit is the part of a processor responsible for translating virtual addresses to physical addresses. The MMU makes a number of features that are taken for granted on modern desktop OSes such as process separation and virtualization possible.

An MMU is often absent from deeply embedded systems and may not be used due to resource constraints as well as real time considerations. Some CPUs provide alternatives that allow a data cache to be used.^{Ref: ARM MPU}

Related:

• tlb ; a cache of mmu table values.
• cpu-cache - caches interact with the MMU depending on types (VIVT, PIPT, etc)
• paging - issues related using the MMU to 'swap' memory to disk.
• virtual-memory - issues with using virtual memory.
• virtualization - some systems use the MMU to implement virtualization (especially without virtualization extensions in the CPU) and others MMUs provide assistance for the hypervisor.