Patent ID: 7685399

Claim:
A method for moving data between memory addresses in a computer system in which data referenced by the memory addresses is stored in physical memory, the method comprising: providing a translation mechanism for mapping respective pages of contiguous memory addresses to corresponding locations in said physical memory in accordance with a specified mapping, whereby a first page of memory addresses is mapped to a first location in said physical memory and a second page of memory addresses is mapped to a second location in said physical memory; and changing said specified mapping of said translation mechanism to a new mapping in which said second page of memory addresses is mapped to said first location in said physical memory, thereby effectively moving said data stored at said first location from said first page of memory addresses to said second page of memory addresses without moving said data between locations in said physical memory; wherein said translation mechanism comprises a table containing a plurality of entries, each of which is indexed by a memory address reference to one of said pages and specifies a particular location in said physical memory to which the page is mapped; wherein said memory addresses each contain a first index portion identifying an increment and a second index portion identifying a page within said increment, said translation mechanism comprising: a plurality of page tables corresponding respectively to said increments and each containing a plurality of entries, each of said table entries being indexed by said second index portion and specifying a particular increment in said physical memory and a particular location in said increment to which the page is mapped; and an increment table containing a plurality of entries, each of which is indexed by said first index portion and specifies a particular one of said page tables.