[nkurz]

It certainly wouldn't be the first time that I've suggested something ridiculous. One easy explanation for the lack of papers I can find is that the idea is so obviously useless that no one has written about it!

That said, it just seems unlikely that the best solution for 32-bit systems with limited virtual address space and slow interrupt generating system calls is also the best solution for 64-bit systems with practically-limitless virtual address space and fast hardware-supported syscall/sysenter.

And I think what I'm suggesting is roughly analogous to what's being done in Azul's (successful?) C4 garbage collection: provide fast userspace for per-process page table manipulation, and offload as much as possible to the hardware: http://www.azulsystems.com/sites/default/files/images/c4_pap...

But I'm definitely too fuzzy about some of the key concepts to suggest anything particularly coherent at this point. I'll check out your writeup, and try to learn more. Thanks!