Memory Management

MITM 205 Advanced Operating System Concepts

Mr. Alvin R. Malicdem

Professor

Memory Management

Primary memory is a prime resource in

computer systems.
Its management is an important function of
operating systems.
In this area the operating system depends
heavily on hardware support, and the policies
and data structures that are used are dictated
by the support that is available.
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Key Players in Memory Mgmt

Compiler - structures the address space of an

application
OS - maps the compilers structures onto the
hardware
Hardware - performs the actual accesses to
memory locations

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Mapping Memory Addresses

Text Segment

this is the code, or machine instructions, of the

application being executed, as created by the
compiler

Data Segment

contains predefined data structures, possibly

initialized before the program starts execution

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Mapping Memory Addresses

Heap

this is an area in memory used as a pool for

dynamic memory allocation

Stack

this is the area in memory used to store the

execution frames of functions called by the
program
contain stored register values and space for local
variables
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Early Memory Management

Most early systems are single-user

Batch systems

One Program loaded in physical memory

Runs to completion

Most memory managers implicitly allocate all

memory to a user process
The main concern is protection of the OS
from unauthorized access of the user
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Modern Memory Management

Multiprogramming systems - CPU being

transferred from one process to another

Allows processes to occupy the memory at the

same time
Allows processes whose memory requirement
exceeds that provided by the system
Several processes are running and not all of them
will fit in memory
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The Memory Hierarchy

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Memory Binding (Data & Instn)

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
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Memory Binding cont.

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)

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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

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Logical vs. Physical Address Space

Logical and physical addresses are the same

in compile-time and load-time addressbinding schemes; logical (virtual) and
physical addresses differ in execution-time
address-binding scheme

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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
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Swapping

Process currently occupying the memory will

have to give up its space to make way for
higher priority process

Usually those in I/O operation

Process:

Write the core image of this process to the

backing store and the core center of the image of
the higher priority process is read in
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Schematic View of Swapping

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Hierarchy of Storage devices

Storage access
time
decreases
storage
access speed
increases

Storage
capacity
decreases

cache

main
memory

secondary
storage

Program and
data maybe
referenced by
the CPU directly

Programs and data

must be moved to
memory before
they can be
referenced by the
CPU

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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

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Contiguous Allocation cont.

Relocation registers used to protect user

processes from each other, and from changing
operating-system 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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Base and Limit Registers

A pair of base and limit registers define the

logical address space

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HW address protection with base

and limit registers

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Memory Allocation

Fixed partitions
Dynamic/Variable partitions

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Partitioning Strategies Fixed

Fixed Partitions divide memory into equal sized

pieces (except for OS)

Degree of multiprogramming = number of partitions

Simple policy to implement

All processes must fit into partition space

Find any free partition and load the process

Problem what is the right partition size?

Process size is limited

Internal Fragmentation unused memory in a partition
that is not available to other processes
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Partitioning Strategies Variable

Idea: remove wasted memory that is not needed in

each partition
Memory is dynamically divided into partitions based
on process needs
Definition:

Hole: a block of free or available memory

Holes are scattered throughout physical memory

New process is allocated memory from hole large

enough to fit it
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Variable Partitions

More complex management problem

Must track free and used memory

Need data structures to do tracking
What holes are used for a process?

External fragmentation

memory that is in holes too small to be usable by any process

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OS

OS

OS

process 1

process 1

process 1

process 2
process 3

Process 2
Terminates

Process 4
Starts
process 3

process 4

process 3

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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
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Fragmentation cont.

Reduce external fragmentation by compaction

Shuffle memory contents to place all free memory

together in one large block
Compaction is possible only if relocation is
dynamic, and is done at execution time
I/O problem

Batch job in memory while it is involved in I/O

Do I/O only into OS buffers
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Memory Allocation Mechanism

MM system maintains data about free and allocated memory

alternatives

At swap-in or process create

Bit maps - 1 bit per allocation unit

Linked Lists - free list updated and coalesced when not allocated to a
process
Find free memory that is large enough to hold the process
Allocate part (or all) of memory to process and mark remainder as
free

Compaction

Moving things around so that holes can be consolidated

Expensive in OS time
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Memory Management Policies

Policy examples

First Fit: scan free list and allocate first hole that
is large enough fast
Next Fit: start search from end of last allocation
Best Fit: find smallest hole that is adequate
slower and lots of fragmentation
Worst fit: find largest hole
In general, First Fit is the winner
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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 8,192 bytes)

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Paging

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
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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
page number

page offset
d

m-n

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Paging Hardware

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Paging Model of Logical and

Physical Memory

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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
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Users View of a Program

1
4

1
2
3

user space

physical memory space

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Segmentation

Logical address consists of a pair:

<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.
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Segment Look-up
Index to segment
register table

Segment register table

limit

physical memory

base

segment 0
segment #

offset

segment 1

virtual address

segment 2

<? yes
no
raise
protection fault

segment 3
Physical
Address
segment 4

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Segmentation Hardware

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Segmentation Example

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MITM 205 Advanced Operating Systems Concepts

END OF LECTURE
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