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From: baskett@decwrl.UUCP (Forest Baskett)
Newsgroups: net.arch
Subject: Choice of page size
Message-ID: <5025@decwrl.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 17-Jan-84 10:56:51 EST
Article-I.D.: decwrl.5025
Posted: Tue Jan 17 10:56:51 1984
Date-Received: Wed, 18-Jan-84 06:40:43 EST
Organization: DEC Western Research Lab, Los Altos, CA
Lines: 12

In a well designed hardware MMU system the choice of page size is often a
compromise between performance and addressability and frequently has little
to do with what size system software designers desire.  Performance
degradations on the order of 20% on every memory reference are not uncommon
in systems where the choice was made incorrectly.  In a well designed
software MMU system, the choice of page size is often a compile time
parameter.  The hardware compromise point is likely to change as technology
changes.  Some software designers have realized that and are now decoupling
the hardware page size from the software page size in all possible places.

Forest Baskett
{decvax|ucbvax}!decwrl!baskett