Large Pages in Linux

Explore the intricacies of large pages in Linux with Matthew Wilcox's conference talk from linux.conf.au 2020. Delve into the evolution of huge pages since 2002, examining their impact on CPU performance and support across various architectures. Learn about the limitations of the current huge page mechanism and the potential for implementing "medium" large pages and even larger page sizes. Discover the importance of larger pages in reducing software overhead and enabling hardware optimizations. Gain insights into recent performance improvements for larger pages in the page cache and efforts to support larger pages in normal filesystems. Consider the drawbacks and future limitations of using larger pages. Aimed at kernel developers and those interested in hardware functionality, this talk provides a comprehensive overview of large page technology in Linux and its implications for system performance.

Introduction
Translation Lookaside Buffer
Page Tables
TLB Entries
CPU Support
Paging History
Large Page Support
Huge Pages
Page Size
Huge Page Cache
Large Page Cache
Page Fault Allocation
Read Ahead
The Code
Questions
Read Pages