From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jul 30 18:09:41 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 35E6F106567C for ; Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:09:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from neldredge@math.ucsd.edu) Received: from euclid.ucsd.edu (euclid.ucsd.edu [132.239.145.52]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1CBE58FC1D for ; Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:09:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from neldredge@math.ucsd.edu) Received: from zeno.ucsd.edu (zeno.ucsd.edu [132.239.145.22]) by euclid.ucsd.edu (8.11.7p3+Sun/8.11.7) with ESMTP id m6UI9eB10904; Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:09:40 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost (neldredg@localhost) by zeno.ucsd.edu (8.11.7p3+Sun/8.11.7) with ESMTP id m6UI9en13203; Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:09:40 -0700 (PDT) X-Authentication-Warning: zeno.ucsd.edu: neldredg owned process doing -bs Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:09:40 -0700 (PDT) From: Nate Eldredge X-X-Sender: neldredg@zeno.ucsd.edu To: FreeBSD Hackers In-Reply-To: <591f70e00807300459j74aac11eob0bea7cdf4b4dcd4@mail.gmail.com> Message-ID: References: <591f70e00807300459j74aac11eob0bea7cdf4b4dcd4@mail.gmail.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Cc: FreeBSD Hackers Subject: Re: General questions about virtual memory X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:09:41 -0000 On Wed, 30 Jul 2008, FreeBSD Hackers wrote: > If anyone is willing to help me understand this, I would greatly appreciate > it. I would also value your input if there are other resources (people, > mailing lists, books, web pages, etc.) that you want to recommend instead of > taking some time to help teach me. As a slightly less orthodox suggestion, I learned a lot of this from the "practice" side rather than the "theory" side, and it seems like maybe this is where some of your questions lie. In addition to a textbook, you might find it useful to get a copy of the manual for your favorite CPU, which will explain, at the level of assembly language, how all these features work. (They are usually available free on the manufacturer's website, though you may have to hunt around a bit or register for a developer program or something.) You can read it in conjunction with the FreeBSD kernel source to see an actual example. I found this approach very instructive. -- Nate Eldredge neldredge@math.ucsd.edu