Patent ID: 7296138

Claim:
A method comprising: determining a location of a process page table entry; determining whether said process page table entry is a prototype page table entry; upon a determination that said process page table entry is said prototype page table entry, determining a location of an actual page table entry from said process page table entry, wherein said determining a location of an actual page table entry from said process page table entry comprises: reading values of bits 1 - 7 of said prototype page table entry, said values of said bits 1 - 7 being low values; reading values of bits 11 - 31 of said prototype page table entry, said values of said bits 11 - 31 being high values; and ORing together said high values and said low values to generate an offset value, said offset value representing said location of said actual page table entry relative to a base address; disabling a copy-on-write functionality associated with said actual page table entry; determining a location of a shared page of memory associated with said actual page table entry; modifying said shared page; and enabling said copy-on-write functionality.