Abstract: A method for providing hardware support for memory protection and virtual memory address translation for a virtual machine. The method includes executing a host machine application on a host computer system, executing a first virtual machine application within a first virtual machine, and executing a second virtual machine application within a second virtual machine. A plurality of TLB (translation look aside buffer) entries for the first virtual machine application and the second machine application are stored within a TLB of the host computer system. At least one of the plurality of TLB entries is a global TLB entry.

Abstract: A method for supporting input/output for a virtual machine. The method includes the step of executing virtual machine application instructions, wherein the application instructions are executed using micro architecture code of a processor architecture. An I/O access is received from the virtual machine application. Virtual memory protection is used to generate an exception, wherein the exception is caused by the I/O access. A single step mode is entered to perform the I/O access using a host operating system. State data for the virtual machine application is updated in accordance with the I/O access. Subsequently, execution of the virtual machine application is resumed.