If the real issue is simply to minimize the number of pages to track (and thereby maximize TLB hits) then its very simple: go to 1 GB (or higher!) pages. This

If the real issue is simply to minimize the number of pages to track (and thereby maximize TLB hits) then its very simple: go to 1 GB (or higher!) pages. This hints that there is a tradeoff happening here. At the highest level, the tradeoff is between having efficient use of memory and TLB hits. Big pages give TLB hits, small pages make efficient use of memory. Since the TLB is in hardware, it is more difficult to have the fine-grain tuning you desire.