Patent ID: 7398371

Claim:
A method comprising: upon encountering an exception/interrupt, saving data stored in a first selected set of registers to a thread-specific area of a virtual memory, the thread-specific area having a corresponding physical address stored in a translation look-aside buffer, wherein the data stored in the first selected set of registers is saved to a predetermined section of the thread-specific area, wherein saving data to the predetermined section of the thread-specific area comprises saving data to a first predetermined section of the thread-specific area for temporary storage of data during handling of translation look-aside buffer misses when the encountered exception/interrupt is a first translation look-aside buffer miss exception; re-enabling exceptions and optionally interrupts; addressing a cause of the exception/interrupt while safely permitting another exception; restoring the saved data to the first selected set of registers; encountering a second translation look-aside buffer miss exception associated with a same thread as the first translation look-aside buffer miss exception while the cause of the first translation look-aside buffer miss exception is being addressed; and saving data stored in the first selected set of registers to a second predetermined section of the thread-specific area that is devoted to the temporary storage of data while handling a nested translation look-aside buffer miss exception.