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Virtual Memory 1

Virtual memory allows a program's logical address space to be larger than physical memory by paging portions of memory in and out of physical memory frames as needed. When a program accesses a page not in memory, a page fault occurs which the operating system handles by finding a free frame, swapping out the needed page from disk, and updating page tables. Copy-on-write allows processes to initially share pages to improve efficiency of process creation.

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33 views21 pages

Virtual Memory 1

Virtual memory allows a program's logical address space to be larger than physical memory by paging portions of memory in and out of physical memory frames as needed. When a program accesses a page not in memory, a page fault occurs which the operating system handles by finding a free frame, swapping out the needed page from disk, and updating page tables. Copy-on-write allows processes to initially share pages to improve efficiency of process creation.

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Chapter 9: Virtual Memory

Virtual Memory-1
 Background
 Demand Paging
 Copy-on-Write
Objectives

 To describe the benefits of a virtual memory


system

 To explain the concepts of demand paging,


page-replacement algorithms, and allocation of
page frames

 To discuss the principle of the working-set model


Background
 Virtual memory – separation of user logical memory
from physical memory.
 Only part of the program needs to be in memory for
execution
 Logical address space can therefore be much larger
than physical address space
 Allows address spaces to be shared by several
processes
 Allows for more efficient process creation

 Virtual memory can be implemented via:


 Demand paging
 Demand segmentation
Virtual Memory That is Larger Than Physical Memory


Virtual-address Space
Shared Library Using Virtual Memory
Demand Paging
 Bring a page into memory only when it is needed
 Less I/O needed
 Less memory needed
 Faster response
 More users

 Page is needed  reference to it


 invalid reference  abort
 not-in-memory  bring to memory
 Lazy swapper – never swaps a page into memory
unless page will be needed
 Swapper that deals with pages is a pager
Transfer of a Paged Memory to Contiguous Disk Space
Valid-Invalid Bit
 With each page table entry a valid–invalid bit is associated
(v  in-memory, i  not-in-memory)
 Initially valid–invalid bit is set to i on all entries
 Example of a page table snapshot:

Frame # valid-invalid bit


v
v
v
v
i
….

i
i
page table
During address translation, if valid–invalid bit in page table
entry
is I  page fault
Page Table When Some Pages Are Not in Main Memory
Page Fault
 If there is a reference to a page, first reference to
that page will trap to operating system:
page fault
1. Operating system looks at another table to
decide:
 Invalid reference  abort
 Just not in memory
2. Get empty frame
3. Swap page into frame
4. Reset tables
5. Set validation bit = v
6. Restart the instruction that caused the page fault
Page Fault (Cont.)

 Restart instruction
 block move

 auto increment/decrement location


Steps in Handling a Page Fault
Performance of Demand Paging
 Page Fault Rate 0  p  1.0
 if p = 0 no page faults
 if p = 1, every reference is a fault

 Effective Access Time (EAT)


EAT = (1 – p) x memory access
+ p (page fault overhead
+ swap page out
+ swap page in
+ restart overhead
)
Demand Paging Example
 Memory access time = 200 nanoseconds

 Average page-fault service time = 8 milliseconds

 EAT = (1 – p) x 200 + p (8 milliseconds)


= (1 – p x 200 + p x 8,000,000
= 200 + p x 7,999,800

 If one access out of 1,000 causes a page fault, then


EAT = 8.2 microseconds.
This is a slowdown by a factor of 40!!
Process Creation

 Virtual memory allows other benefits during process


creation:

- Copy-on-Write

- Memory-Mapped Files (later)


Copy-on-Write
 Copy-on-Write (COW) allows both parent and child
processes to initially share the same pages in memory

If either process modifies a shared page, only then is the


page copied

 COW allows more efficient process creation as only


modified pages are copied

 Free pages are allocated from a pool of zeroed-out


pages
Before Process 1 Modifies Page C
After Process 1 Modifies Page C
What happens if there is no free frame?

 Page replacement – find some page in memory, but


not really in use, swap it out
 algorithm
 performance – want an algorithm which will
result in minimum number of page faults
 Same page may be brought into memory several
times

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