Memory

Memory Management
(General Principles)
 Memory Management
• Objectives
– User believes he is the unique user of the all space.
– User’s address space is infinite.
• Realities
– Many users share the memory.
– A program consists of modules written by many.
– Primary memory has limited size.
– Second memory is 1 to 2 order cheaper than p.m.

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 Multi-step Processing of a User
Program
• Linking : unifying addresses from different modules
• Binding : changing addresses in user’s program
to real ones logical address ---> physical address
• Loading: putting the program into memory
• Executing the program

Should linking, binding, and loading be always done in this order

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 When to Bind ?
• During compile time
– Need to know the precise memory allocation
– Only work for small simple programs
• During load time
– The program cannot be moved around during execution
– Simple but inconvenient
• During execution time
– The program can be moved around during execution
– Run-time overhead => hardware assistance

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 Overlays
• Enhancing memory availability
• Better having dynamic loading and binding
Overlay driver
Frequently used routines
Main Memory

Routine A Overlay driver

Frequently used routines

Routine B

Application
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 Swap
• Why ?
• Who should be swapped?
• When ?

• Need of dynamic binding (and dynamic

loading)

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 Single-Partition Allocation
• Basic idea: allocate the entire memory to
ONE process
– Simple, minimum cost
– User has maximum flexibility
– No service from OS
– No multiprogramming

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 A better Idea
• Allocate the memory to O.S and one
process
– Some service from OS
– Still no multi-programming
– An issue : where to put O.S ?
O.S Answer : Put O.S in lower end :
Reasons:
- Interrupt vector
- memory expansions
User Program
& Data

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 Dynamic Binding Using
Relocation Register
Main
Base register 14000 Memory

Logical address Physical

CPU +
346 14346
address

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 Multiple-Partition Allocation
• Basic Idea: allocating memory to multiple processes
• Two ways :
– Fixed-size partition
• Memory is divided into several parts of fixed size
• Each process takes one part
• No longer in use
– Variable-size partition
• Memory is partitioned dynamically
• O.S. keeps a table of parts of memory available
• When a process arrives, OS searches for a part of
memory large enough for the process
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 Example

OS Job Queue
400K process mem. req. finish time
P1 600K 10
P2 1000K 5
P3 300K 20
2160K P4 700K 8
P5 500K 15

2560K
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 Example (cont’d)
OS OS OS OS OS
400K 400K 400K 400K 400K
P1 P1 P1 P5
1000K P2 Allocate P1 Allocate
terminates P4 terminates P5

P2 P4 P4 P4

2000K
2300K
P3 P3 P3 P3 P3
Job Queue
process mem. req. finish time
P1 600K 10
P2 1000K 5
P3 300K 20
P4 700K 8
P5 500K 15
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 Dynamic Allocation Problem
• Basic strategies:
– First-fit : allocate the first hole that is big enough.
– Best-fit: allocate the smallest hole that is big enough.
– Worst-fit: allocate the largest hole that is big enough
• Usually, first-fit is fastest and both first-fit
and best fit perform better than worst-fit.
• Any other problems? (To be discussed)
– Protection
– Fragmentation

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 Protection in Multiple-Partition
(Variable Size)
Limit register Base register Main
4096 14000 Memory

Physical
CPU Logical < +
346 14346
address
address

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 Fragmentation
The free memory space is broken into little pieces

• Internal fragmentation
– Definition : difference between required memory
and allocated memory.
– Cause:estimation error, management overhead.
• External fragmentation
– Definition : scattered small pieces not allocated
– Solution: compaction
– Compaction strategy
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 #t Ways to Compact Memory
OS OS OS OS
300K
P1 P1 P1 P1
500K
P2 P2 P2 P2
600K
P3
400K 800K P4
1000K 1000K 900K
P4
P3 P3
1200K
300K
1500K
900K 900K
P4 P4
1900K
200K P3
2100K
Original Moved 600K Moved 400K Moved 200K
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 Paging
• A compactingless memory management
– No external fragmentation

• A compromise between fixed-size partition

and variable-size partition: less internal
fragmentation than fixed-size partition

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 Paging (How)
• Memory is divided into frames of fixed small
size
• A process is allocated a number of frames as
it needs
• Implementation
– Divide logical memory into pages.
– A dynamic mapping (binding/relocation)
between pages and frames
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Page # Frame#
0 a 0
Frame#
0 1 2
b
c
Page#
3 d 0 5 i
1
j
4 e 1 6 k

1 5 f l
2 1
6 g m
n
7 h 3 2 o 2
8 I p
2 9 10
j
k Page table 3
11 l
12 m
3 13 n
14 o 4
15 p
Logical Memory a
b 5
c
d
e
f
g 6
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 Paging Hardware

Logical address Physical address Physical

Memory
CPU p d f d
Page table

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 Paged Segmentation
User’s view of memory

Subroutines
Main
Program

Stack

Data

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 Memory Management with
Segmentation
• Memory allocation
– Fixed-size partition
– Variable-size partition
• The problem still exists
– Paging: paged segmentation system

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 Paged Segmentation System
• Aim:taking the advantages of both paging and
segmentation system
• Implementation : treat each segment independently, each
segment has a page table
• Logical address consists of three parts:
– Segment#
– Page #
– Offset
• Dynamic address translation,

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 Summary of Chapter
• We mainly are concerned with these issues :
– Time
– Utilization of memory:fragmentation
– User convenience:sharing, segmentation
– Protection.

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