The Page Tables
Modern Linux Page Tables (4-Level Architecture) Modern 64-bit processors require much larger address spaces, and the Linux kernel adapted by shifting to a 4-level (and more recently, a 5-level) page table architecture. The Core Concept: Because a 64-bit address space is astronomically large and mostly empty, the kernel cannot use a single, massive translation array. Instead, it uses a hierarchical, multi-level tree of tables to map Virtual Addresses to Physical Addresses efficiently. ...