Chapter 9: Virtual Memory

• Background
• Demand Paging
• Copy-on-Write
• Page Replacement
• Allocation of Frames
• Thrashing
• Memory-Mapped Files
• Allocating Kernel Memory
• Other Considerations
• Operating-System Examples
 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
 Virtual memory

Virtual Memory is a space where large program can

store themselves in form of pages while their execution
and only the required pages or portions of process are
loaded into the main memory.
e.g
Program size> RAM
 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
Demand paging is a memory management scheme used in operating systems to
improve memory usage and system performance.
• Bring a page into memory only when it is needed
• Less I/O needed, no unnecessary I/O.
• 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
Steps in Handling a Page Fault
 Page Replacement

• Prevent over-allocation of memory by modifying page-fault service

routine to include page replacement
• Use modify (dirty) bit to reduce overhead of page transfers – only
modified pages are written to disk
• Page replacement completes separation between logical memory and
physical memory – large virtual memory can be provided on a smaller
physical memory
Need For Page Replacement
 Basic Page Replacement

1. Find the location of the desired page on disk

2. Find a free frame:
- If there is a free frame, use it
- If there is no free frame, use a page replacement
algorithm to select a victim frame
3. Bring the desired page into the (newly) free frame;
update the page and frame tables
4. Restart the process
Page Replacement
 Page Replacement Algorithms
• Want lowest page-fault rate

• Evaluate algorithm by running it on a particular string of

memory references (reference string) and computing the
number of page faults on that string

• In all our examples, the reference string is

1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Graph of Page Faults Versus The Number of Frames
 First-In-First-Out (FIFO) Algorithm
• Reference string: 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
• 3 frames (3 pages can be in memory at a time per process)

1 1 4 5
2 2 1 3 9 page faults
3 3 2 4

• 4 frames

1 1 5 4
2 2 1 5 10 page faults
3 3 2
4 4 3
• Belady’s Anomaly: more frames  more page faults
 FIFO Page Replacement
Reference string: 7,0,1,2,0,3,0,4,2,3,0,3,3,2,2,0,1,7,0,1
3 frames (3 pages can be in memory at a time per process)
FIFO Illustrating Belady’s Anomaly
 Optimal Algorithm
• Replace page that will not be used for longest period of time
• 4 frames example
1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

1 4
2 6 page faults
3

4 5
• How do you know this?
• Used for measuring how well your algorithm performs
Optimal Page Replacement
Least Recently Used (LRU) Algorithm
• Reference string: 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
1 1 1 1 5
2 2 2 2 2
3 5 5 4 4
4 4 3 3 3

• Counter implementation
• Every page entry has a counter; every time page is
referenced through this entry, copy the clock into the
counter
• When a page needs to be changed, look at the counters
to determine which are to change
LRU Page Replacement
 LRU Algorithm (Cont.)

• Stack implementation – keep a stack of page numbers

in a double link form:
• Page referenced:
• move it to the top
• requires 6 pointers to be changed
• No search for replacement
Use Of A Stack to Record the Most Recent Page References
 LRU Approximation Algorithms
• Reference bit
• With each page associate a bit, initially = 0
• When page is referenced bit set to 1
• Replace the one which is 0 (if one exists)
• We do not know the order, however

• Second chance
• Need reference bit
• Clock replacement
• If page to be replaced (in clock order) has reference bit = 1
then:
• set reference bit 0
• leave page in memory
• replace next page (in clock order), subject to same rules
Second-Chance (clock)
Page-Replacement Algorithm
FIFO EXAMPLE:
Consider page reference string 1, 3, 0, 3, 5, 6, 3 with 3 page frames. Find the number of
page faults.

Optimal Page Replacement:

Example-2: Consider the page references 7, 0, 1, 2, 0, 3, 0, 4, 2, 3, 0, 3, 2, 3 with 4
page frame. Find number of page fault.

Least Recently Used:

Example-3: Consider the page reference string 7, 0, 1, 2, 0, 3, 0, 4, 2, 3, 0, 3, 2, 3 with 4
page frames. Find number of page faults.
 Allocation of Frames

• Each process needs minimum number of pages

• Example: IBM 370 – 6 pages to handle SS MOVE instruction:

• instruction is 6 bytes, might span 2 pages
• 2 pages to handle from
• 2 pages to handle to

• Two major allocation schemes

• fixed allocation
• priority allocation
 Fixed Allocation
• Equal allocation – For example, if there are 100
frames and 5 processes, give each process 20
frames.
• Proportional allocation – Allocate according to the
size of process
m  64 si  size of process pi
si  10 S   si
s2  127 m  total number of frames
10 s
a1   64  5 ai  allocation for pi  i  m
137 S
127
a2   64  59
137
 Priority Allocation

• Use a proportional allocation scheme using priorities

rather than size
• If process Pi generates a page fault,
• select for replacement one of its frames
• select for replacement a frame from a process with lower
priority number
Global vs. Local Allocation
• Global replacement – process selects a replacement
frame from the set of all frames; one process can take a
frame from another

• Local replacement – each process selects from only its

own set of allocated frames
 Thrashing
 Thrashing is an important concept in operating systems that describes a
situation where the system spends a significant amount of time
swapping data between main memory and secondary storage (such as a
hard disk), leading to severe degradation in performance.
 Thrashing occurs when the system is in a constant state of high paging
activity, where it’s spending more time swapping pages in and out of
memory than executing actual tasks.
 Thrashing
• If a process does not have “enough” pages, the page-fault rate
is very high. This leads to:
• low CPU utilization
• operating system thinks that it needs to increase the degree of
multiprogramming
• another process added to the system

• Thrashing  a process is busy swapping pages in and out

 Causes of Thrashing

Some common causes include:

•Insufficient physical memory for the workload.
•Overallocation of memory to multiple
processes.
•Inefficient memory allocation strategies.
•High contention for resources among processes.
Thrashing (Cont.)
 Demand Paging and Thrashing

• Why does demand paging work?

Locality model
A locality is a set of pages that are actively used together. The locality model
states that as a process executes, it moves from one locality to another. A
program is generally composed of several different localities which may overlap.

• Process migrates from one locality to another

• Localities may overlap

• Why does thrashing occur?

 size of locality > total memory size
Locality In A Memory-Reference Pattern
Working-Set Model
•   working-set window  a fixed number of page references
Example: 10,000 instruction
• WSSi (working set of Process Pi) =
total number of pages referenced in the most recent  (varies in
time)
• if  too small will not encompass entire locality
• if  too large will encompass several localities
• if  =   will encompass entire program
• D =  WSSi  total demand frames
• if D > m  Thrashing
• Policy if D > m, then suspend one of the processes
Working-set model
 Page-Fault Frequency Scheme

• Establish “acceptable” page-fault rate

• If actual rate too low, process loses frame
• If actual rate too high, process gains frame
Working Sets and Page Fault Rates
 Memory-Mapped Files

• Memory-mapped file I/O allows file I/O to be treated as routine memory

access by mapping a disk block to a page in memory.

• A file is initially read using demand paging. A page-sized portion of the file
is read from the file system into a physical page. Subsequent reads/writes
to/from the file are treated as ordinary memory accesses.

• Simplifies file access by treating file I/O through memory rather than
read() write() system calls.

• Also allows several processes to map the same file allowing the pages in
memory to be shared.
Memory Mapped Files
Memory-Mapped Shared Memory
in Windows
 Allocating Kernel Memory

• Treated differently from user memory

• Often allocated from a free-memory pool

• Kernel requests memory for structures of varying sizes
• Some kernel memory needs to be contiguous
 Buddy System
• Allocates memory from fixed-size segment consisting of physically-
contiguous pages

• Memory allocated using power-of-2 allocator

• Satisfies requests in units sized as power of 2
• Request rounded up to next highest power of 2
• When smaller allocation needed than is available, current chunk split into two
buddies of next-lower power of 2
• Continue until appropriate sized chunk available
Buddy System Allocator
 Slab Allocator
• Alternate strategy
• Slab is one or more physically contiguous pages, It eliminates
fragmentation caused by allocations and deallocations.
• Cache consists of one or more slabs
• Single cache for each unique kernel data structure
• Each cache filled with objects – instantiations of the data structure
• When cache created, filled with objects marked as free
• When structures stored, objects marked as used
• If slab is full of used objects, next object allocated from empty slab
• If no empty slabs, new slab allocated
• Benefits include no fragmentation, fast memory request satisfaction
Slab Allocation
 Other Issues -- Prepaging

• Prepaging
• To reduce the large number of page faults that occurs at process
startup
• Prepage all or some of the pages a process will need, before they
are referenced
• But if prepaged pages are unused, I/O and memory was wasted
• Assume s pages are prepaged and α of the pages is used
• Is cost of s * α save pages faults > or < than the cost of prepaging
s * (1- α) unnecessary pages?
• α near zero  prepaging loses
 Other Issues – Page Size

• Page size selection must take into

consideration:
• fragmentation
• table size
• I/O overhead
• locality
 Other Issues – TLB Reach
• TLB Reach - The amount of memory accessible from the TLB
• TLB Reach = (TLB Size) X (Page Size)
• Ideally, the working set of each process is stored in the TLB
• Otherwise there is a high degree of page faults

• Increase the Page Size

• This may lead to an increase in fragmentation as not all
applications require a large page size

• Provide Multiple Page Sizes

• This allows applications that require larger page sizes the
opportunity to use them without an increase in fragmentation
 Other Issues – I/O interlock

• I/O Interlock – Pages must sometimes be locked into

memory

• Consider I/O - Pages that are used for copying a file from
a device must be locked from being selected for eviction
by a page replacement algorithm
 Operating System Examples

• Windows XP

• Solaris
 Windows XP
• Uses demand paging with clustering. Clustering brings in pages
surrounding the faulting page.
• Processes are assigned working set minimum and working set
maximum.
• Working set minimum is the minimum number of pages the process is
guaranteed to have in memory.
• A process may be assigned as many pages up to its working set
maximum.
• When the amount of free memory in the system falls below a threshold,
automatic working set trimming is performed to restore the amount of
free memory.
• Working set trimming removes pages from processes that have pages in
excess of their working set minimum.
 Solaris
• Maintains a list of free pages to assign faulting processes
• Lotsfree – threshold parameter (amount of free memory) to begin paging
• Desfree – threshold parameter to increasing paging
• Minfree – threshold parameter to being swapping
• Paging is performed by pageout process
• Pageout scans pages using modified clock algorithm
• Scanrate is the rate at which pages are scanned. This ranges from slowscan to
fastscan
• Pageout is called more frequently depending upon the amount of free memory
available
Solaris 2 Page Scanner
End of Chapter 9