Virtual Memory

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

9.2
 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

9.3
 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

9.4
Virtual Memory That is Larger Than Physical Memory

9.5
Virtual-address Space

9.6
Shared Library Using Virtual Memory

9.7
 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

9.8
Transfer of a Paged Memory to Contiguous Disk Space

9.9
 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
9.10
Page Table When Some Pages Are Not in Main Memory

9.11
 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

9.12
 Page Fault (Cont.)
 Restart instruction
 block move

 auto increment/decrement location

9.13
Steps in Handling a Page Fault

9.14
 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
)

9.15
 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!!

9.16
 Process Creation
 Virtual memory allows other benefits during process creation:

- Copy-on-Write

- Memory-Mapped Files (later)

9.17
 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

9.18
Before Process 1 Modifies Page C

9.19
After Process 1 Modifies Page C

9.20
 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

9.21
 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

9.22
Need For Page Replacement

9.23
 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

9.24
Page Replacement

9.25
 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

9.26
Graph of Page Faults Versus The Number of Frames

9.27
 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

9.28
FIFO Page Replacement

9.29
FIFO Illustrating Belady’s Anomaly

9.30
 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

9.31
Optimal Page Replacement

9.32
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

9.33
LRU Page Replacement

9.34
 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

9.35
Use Of A Stack to Record The Most Recent Page References

9.36
 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

9.37
Second-Chance (clock) Page-Replacement Algorithm

9.38
 Counting Algorithms

 Keep a counter of the number of references that have been

made to each page

 LFU Algorithm: replaces page with smallest count

 MFU Algorithm: based on the argument that the page with

the smallest count was probably just brought in and has yet
to be used

9.39
 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

9.40
 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
si  size of process pi
S   si
m  total number of frames
s
ai  allocation for pi  i  m
S
m  64
si  10
s2  127
10
a1   64  5
137
127
a2   64  59
137

9.41
 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

9.42
 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

9.43
 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

9.44
Thrashing (Cont.)

9.45
 Demand Paging and Thrashing

 Why does demand paging work?

Locality model
 Process migrates from one locality to another
 Localities may overlap

 Why does thrashing occur?

 size of locality > total memory size

9.46
Locality In A Memory-Reference Pattern

9.47
 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

9.48
Working-set model

9.49
 Keeping Track of the Working Set
 Approximate with interval timer + a reference bit
 Example:  = 10,000
 Timer interrupts after every 5000 time units
 Keep in memory 2 bits for each page
 Whenever a timer interrupts copy and sets the values of all reference
bits to 0
 If one of the bits in memory = 1  page in working set
 Why is this not completely accurate?
 Improvement = 10 bits and interrupt every 1000 time units

9.50
 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

9.51
Working Sets and Page Fault Rates

9.52
 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

9.53
Memory Mapped Files

9.54
Memory-Mapped Shared Memory in Windows

9.55
 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

9.56
 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

9.57
Buddy System Allocator

9.58
 Slab Allocator
 Alternate strategy
 Slab is one or more physically contiguous pages
 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

9.59
Slab Allocation

9.60
 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

9.61
 Other Issues – Page Size

 Page size selection must take into consideration:

 fragmentation
 table size
 I/O overhead
 locality

9.62
 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

9.63
 Other Issues – Program Structure
 Program structure
 Int[128,128] data;
 Each row is stored in one page
 Program 1
for (j = 0; j <128; j++)
for (i = 0; i < 128; i++)
data[i,j] = 0;

128 x 128 = 16,384 page faults

 Program 2
for (i = 0; i < 128; i++)
for (j = 0; j < 128; j++)
data[i,j] = 0;

128 page faults

9.64
 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

9.65
Reason Why Frames Used For I/O Must Be In Memory

9.66
 Operating System Examples

 Windows XP

 Solaris

9.67
 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

9.68
 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

9.69
Solaris 2 Page Scanner

9.70