Operating Systems

Fixed/Variable
Partitioning

D S Bais
 Real Memory Management
• Background
• Memory Management Requirements
• Fixed/Static Partitioning
• Variable/Dynamic Partitioning
• Simple/Basic Paging
• Simple/Basic Segmentation
• Segmentation with Paging

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 Contiguous Allocation
• An executing process must be loaded entirely in main
memory (if overlays are not used).
• Main memory is usually split into two (Memory split)
or more (Memory division) partitions:
– Resident operating system, usually held in low memory
partition with interrupt vector.
– User processes then held in high memory partitions.
• Relocation registers used to protect user processes
from each other, and from changing OS code and data:
– Base register contains value of smallest physical address.
– Limit register contains range of logical addresses –
each logical address must be less than the limit register.
– MMU maps logical address dynamically.
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 Real Memory Management Techniques

• Although the following simple/basic memory

management techniques are not used in
modern OSs, they lay the ground for a later
proper discussion of virtual memory:
– Fixed/Static Partitioning
– Variable/Dynamic Partitioning
– Simple/Basic Paging
– Simple/Basic Segmentation

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 Fixed Partitioning

• Partition main memory

into a set of non-
overlapping memory
regions called partitions.
• Fixed partitions can be of
equal or unequal sizes.
• Leftover space in
partition, after program
assignment, is called
internal fragmentation.
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 Placement Algorithm with Partitions

• Equal-size partitions:
– If there is an available partition, a process
can be loaded into that partition –
• because all partitions are of equal size, it does
not matter which partition is used.
– If all partitions are occupied by blocked
processes, choose one process to swap out to
make room for the new process.

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 Placement Algorithm with Partitions
• Unequal-size partitions,
use of multiple queues:
– assign each process to the
smallest partition within
which it will fit.
– a queue exists for each
partition size.
– tries to minimize internal
fragmentation.
– problem: some queues
might be empty while
some might be loaded.
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 Placement Algorithm with Partitions

• Unequal-size partitions,
use of a single queue:
– when its time to load a
process into memory,
the smallest available
partition that will hold
the process is selected.
– increases the level of
multiprogramming at
the expense of internal
fragmentation.
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 Dynamics of Fixed Partitioning

• Any process whose size is less than or

equal to a partition size can be loaded
into the partition.
• If all partitions are occupied, the OS can
swap a process out of a partition.
• A program may be too large to fit in a
partition. The programmer must design
the program with overlays.
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 Comments on Fixed Partitioning
• Main memory use is inefficient. Any program,
no matter how small, occupies an entire
partition. This can cause internal fragmentation.
• Unequal-size partitions lessens these problems
but they still remain ...
• Equal-size partitions was used in early IBM’s
OS/MFT (Multiprogramming with a Fixed
number of Tasks).

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 Variable Partitioning
– Degree of multiprogramming limited by number of partitions.
– Variable-partition sizes for efficiency (sized to a given process’ needs).
– 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.
– Process exiting frees its partition, adjacent free partitions combined.
– Operating system maintains information about:
a) allocated partitions b) free partitions (hole)

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 Managing allocated and free partitions
• Example: memory with 5 processes and 3 holes:
– tick marks show memory allocation units.
– shaded regions (0 in the bitmap) are free.

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 Memory Management with Linked Lists

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 Variable Partitioning: example

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 Internal/External Fragmentation
• There are really two types of fragmentation:
1. Internal Fragmentation –
allocated memory may be slightly larger than
requested memory; this size difference is
memory internal to a partition, but not being
used.
2. External Fragmentation –
total memory space exists to satisfy a size n
request, but that memory is not contiguous.

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 Reducing External Fragmentation
• Reduce external fragmentation by doing
compaction:
– Shuffle memory contents to place all free
memory together in one large block (or
possibly a few large ones).
– Compaction is possible only if relocation is
dynamic, and is done at execution time.
– I/O problem:
• Lock job in memory while it is involved in I/O.
• Do I/O only into OS buffers.
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 Comments on Variable Partitioning
• Partitions are of variable length and number.
• Each process is allocated exactly as much
memory as it requires.
• Eventually holes are formed in main memory.
This can cause external fragmentation.
• Must use compaction to shift processes so they
are contiguous; all free memory is in one block.
• Used in IBM’s OS/MVT (Multiprogramming
with a Variable number of Tasks).
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 Dynamic Storage-Allocation Problem

• Satisfy request of size n from list of free

holes – four basic methods:
– First-fit: Allocate the first hole that is big enough.
– Next-fit: Same logic as first-fit but starts search
always from the last allocated hole (need to keep a
pointer to this) in a wraparound fashion.
– 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.
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 Placement Algorithms
• Used to decide which
free block to allocate to
a process of 16MB.
• Goal: reduce usage of
compaction procedure
(its time consuming).
• Example algorithms:
– First-fit
– Next-fit
– Best-fit
– Worst-fit (to imagine)
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 Comments on Placement Algorithms
• First-fit favors allocation near the beginning: tends to
create less fragmentation then Next-fit.
• Next-fit often leads to allocation of the largest block at
the end of memory.
• Best-fit searches for smallest block: the fragment left
behind is small as possible –
– main memory quickly forms holes too small to hold any
process: compaction generally needs to be done more often.

• First/Next-fit and Best-fit better than Worst-fit (name

is fitting) in terms of speed and storage utilization.
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 Replacement Algorithm
• When all processes in main memory are
blocked, the OS must choose which
process to replace:
– A process must be swapped out (to a
Blocked-Suspend state) and be replaced by
a process from the Ready-Suspend queue or
a new process.

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 Knuth’s Buddy System
• A reasonable compromise to overcome disadvantages
of both fixed and variable partitioning schemes.
• Memory allocated using power-of-2 allocation;
Satisfies requests in units sized as power of 2.
• Memory blocks are available in size of 2^{K} where L
<= K <= U and where:
– 2^{L} = smallest size of block allocatable.
– 2^{U} = largest size of block allocatable
(generally, the entire memory available).
• A modified form is used in Unix SVR4 for kernel
memory allocation.
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 Buddy System Allocation

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 Example of Buddy System

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 Tree Representation of Buddy System

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 Dynamics of Buddy System (1)
• We start with the entire block of size 2^{U}.
• When a request of size S is made:
– If 2^{U-1} < S <= 2^{U} then allocate the entire block of size
2^{U}.
– Else, split this block into two buddies, each of size 2^{U-1}.
– If 2^{U-2} < S <= 2^{U-1} then allocate one of the 2 buddies.
– Otherwise one of the 2 buddies is split again.
• This process is repeated until the smallest block greater or equal
to S is generated.
• Two buddies are coalesced whenever both of them become
unallocated.
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 Dynamics of Buddy System (2)
• The OS maintains several lists of holes:
– the i-list is the list of holes of size 2^{i}.
– whenever a pair of buddies in the i-list occur, they
are removed from that list and coalesced into a
single hole in the (i+1)-list.
• Presented with a request for an allocation of
size k such that 2^{i-1} < k <= 2^{i}:
– the i-list is first examined.
– if the i-list is empty, the (i+1)-list is then
examined ...
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 Comments on Buddy System
• Mostly efficient when the size M of memory
used by the Buddy System is a power of 2:
– M = 2^{U} “bytes” where U is an integer.
– then the size of each block is a power of 2.
– the smallest block is of size 1.
• On average, internal fragmentation is 25%
– each memory block is at least 50% occupied.
• Programs are not moved in memory:
– simplifies memory management.

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