Patent ID: 8051271

Claim:
Address translation circuitry for translating virtual addresses to physical addresses for a data processor in response to access requests from said data processor targeting virtual addresses, said address translation circuitry comprising: a data store comprising a plurality of entries for storing a plurality of mappings of ranges of virtual addresses to ranges of physical addresses for said data processor and additional data associated with each of said plurality of mappings within a table, said data processor being responsive to said access requests to access said table to retrieve a corresponding mapping and to access a further store of mappings if said corresponding mapping is not present in said table; updating circuitry for updating said table in response to an access request for a virtual address that is not mapped by said table, said updating circuitry being responsive to receipt of a mapping for said virtual address from said further store to: select a plurality of entries in said table suitable for storing said received mapping; and determine one of said plurality of selected entries to be overwritten by said received mapping in dependence upon at least a portion of said additional data stored in said one of said plurality of selected entries, wherein said updating circuitry is adapted to read said plurality of selected entries and to compare said at least a portion of said additional data stored in each of said plurality of selected entries with a corresponding at least a portion of additional data to be stored associated with said received mapping and to select an entry where said portions of additional data do not match as said entry to update, and said mappings comprise a part of said virtual address, a corresponding part of said physical address and said additional data comprises attribute data, said attribute data being indicative of a state of said data processor associated with said mapping.