Abstract: On a computer system having a processor, a single OS and a first instance of a system driver installed and performing system services, method for sharing driver pages among Containers, including instantiating a plurality of Containers that virtualize the OS, wherein the first instance is loaded from an image, and instantiating a second instance of the system driver upon request from Container for system services by: allocating virtual memory pages for the second instance and loading, from the image, the second instance into a physical memory; acquiring virtual addresses of identical pages of the first instance compared to the second instance; mapping the virtual addresses of the identical pages of the second instance to physical pages to which virtual addresses of the corresponding pages of the first instance are mapped, and protecting the physical pages from modification; and releasing physical memory occupied by the identical pages of the second instance.

Abstract: Method for sharing driver pages, including, on a computer system having a first driver and performing system services, instantiating Containers; code and data of the driver are loaded sequentially into pages arranged in a virtual memory, and instantiating a next driver upon a request from one of the Containers for system services by: loading physical pages of the next driver into physical memory and allocated virtual memory pages for the next driver; associating the next driver with the first driver and comparing pages of the next driver and the first driver, generating a set of identical physical pages; mapping virtual pages of the next driver to identical physical pages of the first driver while atomically protecting identical physical pages; non-identical pages of the next driver from physical memory remain mapped to virtual pages of the next driver; releasing physical memory occupied by identical physical pages of the next driver.