Abstract: Methods and systems for defining the partitioning between operating system environments are provided. In this method, network resources, devices, and pseudo-filesystems, etc. can be partitioned. This method provides the capability to support services from native and foreign operating environments without colliding on fixed resources. This method simplifies the task of supporting multiple different operating environments. By assigning each operating environment to its own zone, multiple instances of a single operating environment or multiple different operating environments can be simultaneously supported on a single operating system kernel.

Abstract: Methods and systems for defining the partitioning between operating system environments are provided. In this method, network resources, devices, and pseudo-filesystems, etc. can be partitioned. This method provides the capability to support services from native and foreign operating environments without colliding on fixed resources. This method simplifies the task of supporting multiple different operating environments. By assigning each operating environment to its own zone, multiple instances of a single operating environment or multiple different operating environments can be simultaneously supported on a single operating system kernel.

Abstract: The present invention provides a method and apparatus for increased efficiency for translation lookaside buffers by collapsing redundant translation table entries into a single translation table entry (TTE). In the present invention, each thread of a multithreaded processor is provided with multiple context registers. Each of these context registers is compared independently to the context of the TTE. If any of the contexts match (and the other match conditions are satisfied), then the translation is allowed to proceed. Two applications attempting to share one page but that still keep separate pages can then employ three total contexts. One context is for one application's private use; one of the contexts is for the other application's private use; and a third context is for the shared page. In one embodiment of the invention, two contexts are implemented per thread. However, the teachings of the present invention can be extended to a higher number of contexts per thread.