7. A method for translating a first virtual address to a physical address, the method comprising the steps of: receiving the first virtual address to be translated, the first virtual address comprising a virtual page offset and a virtual page number, the first virtual address being mapped by an unknown page size, the unknown page size being a first or second page size, the first page size not equal to the second page size; calculating first and second pointers into a translation storage buffer, the first pointer being calculated from the first virtual address by assuming that the first virtual address corresponds to a mapping of the first page size, the first pointer pointing to a first candidate translation table entry of the translation storage buffer, the first candidate translation table entry comprising a first candidate tag and first candidate data, the first candidate tag identifying a first particular virtual address and the first candidate data identifying a first particular physical address corresponding to the first particular virtual address, the second pointer being calculated from the virtual address to be translated by assuming that the first virtual address corresponds to a mapping of the second page size, the second pointer pointing to a second candidate translation table entry of the translation storage buffer, the second candidate translation table entry comprising a second candidate tag and second candidate data, the second candidate tag identifying a second particular virtual address and the second candidate data identifying a second particular physical address corresponding to the second particular virtual address; extracting first and second virtual address target tags from the first virtual address, the first virtual address target tag being calculated by assuming that the first virtual address corresponds to a mapping of the first page size, the second virtual address target tag being calculated by assuming that the first virtual address corresponds to a mapping of the second page size; comparing the first target tag to the first candidate tag; if the first target tag matches the first candidate tag, providing the first candidate data as the physical address translation corresponding to the first virtual address; comparing the second target tag to the second candidate tag; if the second target tag matches the second candidate tag, providing the second candidate data as the physical address translation corresponding to the first virtual address, wherein the translation storage buffer is comprised of sub translation storage buffers, each sub translation storage buffer corresponding to a page size of the first and second page sizes and is comprised of a positive integral power of two translation table entries and each translation table entry is M words in size where M is a positive integer, the step of calculating the first and second pointers includes the steps of: forming a first translation storage buffer index by extracting N1 least significant bits of the virtual page number of the first virtual address assuming the first virtual address is mapped using the first page size where N1 is the base two logarithm of the number of translation-table entries of the sub translation storage buffer corresponding to the first page size; adding the product of the first translation storage buffer index and M to a first base address to form the first pointer; forming a second translation storage buffer index by extracting N2 least significant bits of the virtual page number of the first virtual address assuming the first virtual address is mapped using the second page size where N2 is the base two logarithm of the number of translation table entries of the sub translation storage buffer corresponding to the second page size; and adding the product of the second translation storage buffer index and M to a second base address to form the second pointer.
12. The method as set forth in claim 7 wherein multiple translation storage buffers are tested.