Re: [PATCH v2] NOMMU: add support for Memory Protection Units (MPU)

From: Bernd Schmidt
Date: Tue Jul 14 2009 - 17:00:40 EST


David Howells wrote:
> Mike Frysinger <vapier@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>> Some architectures (like the Blackfin arch) implement some of the
>> "simpler" features that one would expect out of a MMU such as memory
>> protection. In our case, we actually get read/write/exec protection
>> down to the page boundary so processes can't stomp on each other let
>> alone the kernel. There is a performance decrease (which depends greatly
>> on the workload) however as the hardware/software interaction was not
>> optimized at design time.
>
> It occurs to me that I could probably test this on FRV by using the MMU in a
> limited way. How do you actually keep track of the protections applied? Do
> you have a single global page table that is managed by the mmap code on a
> per-VMA basis?

No page table, just three bitmaps (r/w/x), with one bit per page, per mm.


Bernd
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