Memory Management

Memory Management

Background
Swapping
Contiguous Allocation
Paging
Segmentation
Segmentation with Paging

8.2

1
 Background

Program must be brought into memory and placed within a process for it to be run

Input queue – collection of processes on the disk that are waiting to be brought into memory
to run the program

User programs go through several steps before being run

8.3

Binding of Instructions and Data to Memory

Address binding of instructions and data to memory addresses can

happen at three different stages

Compile time: If memory location known a priori, absolute code can be generated;
must recompile code if starting location changes
Load time: Must generate relocatable code if memory location is not known at compile
time
Execution time: Binding delayed until run time if the process can be moved during its
execution from one memory segment to another. Need hardware support for address
maps (e.g., base and limit registers).

8.4

2
 Logical vs. Physical Address Space

The concept of a logical address space that is bound to a separate physical address space is
central to proper memory management
Logical address – generated by the CPU; also referred to as virtual address
Physical address – address seen by the memory unit
Logical and physical addresses are the same in compile-time and load-time address-binding
schemes; logical (virtual) and physical addresses differ in execution-time address-binding
scheme

8.5

Memory-Management Unit (MMU)

Hardware device that maps virtual to physical address

In MMU scheme, the value in the relocation register is added to every address generated by
a user process at the time it is sent to memory

The user program deals with logical addresses; it never sees the real physical addresses

8.6

3
 Dynamic relocation using a relocation register

8.7

Dynamic Loading

Routine is not loaded until it is called

Better memory-space utilization; unused routine is never loaded
Useful when large amounts of code are needed to handle infrequently occurring cases
No special support from the operating system is required implemented through program
design

8.8

4
 Dynamic Linking

Linking postponed until execution time

Small piece of code, stub, used to locate the appropriate memory-resident library
routine
Stub replaces itself with the address of the routine, and executes the routine
Operating system needed to check if routine is in processes’ memory address
Dynamic linking is particularly useful for libraries

8.9

Swapping

A process can be swapped temporarily out of memory to a backing store, and then brought
back into memory for continued execution

Backing store – fast disk large enough to accommodate copies of all memory images for all
users; must provide direct access to these memory images

Roll out, roll in – swapping variant used for priority-based scheduling algorithms; lower-
priority process is swapped out so higher-priority process can be loaded and executed

Major part of swap time is transfer time; total transfer time is directly proportional to the
amount of memory swapped

8.10

10

5
 Schematic View of Swapping

8.11

11

Contiguous Allocation

Main memory usually into two partitions:

Resident operating system, usually held in low memory with interrupt vector
User processes then held in high memory

Single-partition allocation
Relocation-register scheme used to protect user processes from each other, and from
changing operating-system code and data
Relocation register contains value of smallest physical address; limit register contains range
of logical addresses – each logical address must be less than the limit register

8.12

12

6
 A base and a limit register define a logical address space

8.13

13

HW address protection with base and limit registers

8.14

14

7
 Contiguous Allocation (Cont.)

Multiple-partition allocation
Hole – block of available memory; holes of various size are scattered throughout memory
When a process arrives, it is allocated memory from a hole large enough to accommodate it
Operating system maintains information about:
a) allocated partitions b) free partitions (hole)

OS OS OS OS

process 5 process 5 process 5 process 5

process 9 process 9

process 8 process 10

process 2 process 2 process 2 process 2

8.15

15

Dynamic Storage-Allocation Problem

How to satisfy a request of size n from a list of free holes

First-fit: Allocate the first hole that is big enough

Best-fit: Allocate the smallest hole that is big
enough; must search entire list, unless ordered by
size. Produces the smallest leftover hole.
Worst-fit: Allocate the largest hole; must also
search entire list. Produces the largest leftover hole.

First-fit and best-fit better than worst-fit in terms of speed

and storage utilization

8.16

16

8
 Fragmentation

External Fragmentation
– total memory space
exists to satisfy a
request, but it is not
contiguous
Internal Fragmentation
– allocated memory may
be slightly larger than
requested memory; this
size difference is memory
internal to a partition, but
not being used
Reduce external
fragmentation by
compaction

8.17

17

Paging

Logical address space of a process can be noncontiguous; process is allocated physical

memory whenever the latter is available
Divide physical memory into fixed-sized blocks called frames (size is power of 2,
between 512 bytes and 8192 bytes)
Divide logical memory into blocks of same size called pages.
Keep track of all free frames
To run a program of size n pages, need to find n free frames and load program
Set up a page table to translate logical to physical addresses
Internal fragmentation

8.18

18

9
 Address Translation Scheme

Address generated by CPU is divided into:

Page number (p) – used as an index into a page table which contains base
address of each page in physical memory

Page offset (d) – combined with base address to define the physical memory
address that is sent to the memory unit

8.19

19

Address Translation Architecture

8.20

20

10
 Paging Example

8.21

21

Paging Example

8.22

22

11
 Free Frames

Before allocation After allocation

8.23

23

Implementation of Page Table

Page table is kept in main memory

Page-table base register (PTBR) points to the page table
Page-table length register (PTLR) indicates size of the page table
In this scheme every data/instruction access requires two memory accesses. One
for the page table and one for the data/instruction.
The two memory access problem can be solved by the use of a special fast-lookup
hardware cache called associative memory or translation look-aside buffers
(TLBs)

8.24

24

12
 Associative Memory

Associative memory – parallel search

Page # Frame #

Address translation (A´, A´´)

If A´ is in associative register, get frame # out
Otherwise get frame # from page table in memory

8.25

25

Paging Hardware With TLB

8.26

26

13
 Effective Access Time

Associative Lookup =  time unit

Assume memory cycle time is 1 microsecond
Hit ratio – percentage of times that a page number is found in the associative registers;
ration related to number of associative registers
Hit ratio = 
Effective Access Time (EAT)
EAT = (1 + )  + (2 + )(1 – )
=2+–

8.27

27

Memory Protection

Memory protection implemented by associating protection bit with each frame

Valid-invalid bit attached to each entry in the page table:

“valid” indicates that the associated page is in the process’ logical address space,
and is thus a legal page
“invalid” indicates that the page is not in the process’ logical address space

8.28

28

14
 Valid (v) or Invalid (i) Bit In A Page Table

8.29

29

Page Table Structure

Hierarchical Paging

Hashed Page Tables

Inverted Page Tables

8.30

30

15
 Hierarchical Page Tables

Break up the logical address space into multiple page tables

A simple technique is a two-level page table

8.31

31

Two-Level Paging Example

A logical address (on 32-bit machine with 4K page size) is divided into:
a page number consisting of 20 bits
a page offset consisting of 12 bits
Since the page table is paged, the page number is further divided into:
a 10-bit page number
a 10-bit page offset
Thus, a logical address is as follows:

page number page offset

pi p2 d

10 10 12
where pi is an index into the outer page table, and p2 is the displacement within the page of the outer
page table

8.32

32

16
 Two-Level Page-Table Scheme

8.33

33

8.34

34

17
 Inverted Page Table

One entry for each real page of memory

Entry consists of the virtual address of the page stored in that real memory
location, with information about the process that owns that page
Decreases memory needed to store each page table, but increases time needed
to search the table when a page reference occurs
Use hash table to limit the search to one — or at most a few — page-table entries

8.35

35

Inverted Page Table Architecture

8.36

36

18
 Shared Pages

Shared code
One copy of read-only (reentrant) code shared among processes (i.e., text editors,
compilers, window systems).
Shared code must appear in same location in the logical address space of all
processes

Private code and data

Each process keeps a separate copy of the code and data
The pages for the private code and data can appear anywhere in the logical address
space

8.37

37

Shared Pages Example

8.38

38

19
 Segmentation

Memory-management scheme that supports user view of memory

A program is a collection of segments. A segment is a logical unit such as:
main program,
procedure,
function,
method,
object,
local variables, global variables,
common block,
stack,
symbol table, arrays

8.39

39

User’s View of a Program

8.40

40

20
 Logical View of Segmentation

4
1

3 2
4

user space physical memory space

8.41

41

Segmentation Architecture

Logical address consists of a two tuple:

<segment-number, offset>,
Segment table – maps two-dimensional physical addresses; each table entry has:
base – contains the starting physical address where the segments reside in memory
limit – specifies the length of the segment
Segment-table base register (STBR) points to the segment table’s location in
memory
Segment-table length register (STLR) indicates number of segments used by a
program;
segment number s is legal if s < STLR

8.42

42

21
 Segmentation Architecture (Cont.)

Relocation.
dynamic
by segment table

Sharing.
shared segments
same segment number

Allocation.
first fit/best fit
external fragmentation

8.43

43

Segmentation Architecture (Cont.)

Protection. With each entry in segment table associate:

validation bit = 0  illegal segment
read/write/execute privileges
Protection bits associated with segments; code sharing occurs at segment level
Since segments vary in length, memory allocation is a dynamic storage-allocation
problem
A segmentation example is shown in the following diagram

8.44

44

22
 Address Translation Architecture

8.45

45

Example of Segmentation

8.46

46

23
 Sharing of Segments

8.47

47

Segmentation with Paging – MULTICS

MULTICS (Multiplexed Information and Computing Service)

The MULTICS system solved problems of external fragmentation and
lengthy search times by paging the segments

Solution differs from pure segmentation in that the segment-table entry

contains not the base address of the segment, but rather the base address
of a page table for this segment

8.48

48

24
 MULTICS Address Translation Scheme

8.49

49

End

50

25