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Chapter 6 Memory Management

Memory management is a key operating system task that involves allocating and sharing limited main memory among multiple active processes. It aims to maximize the number of processes in memory through techniques like relocation, protection, and sharing. The basic tools for memory management are paging and segmentation, which involve dividing programs and memory into small, fixed-sized pages and variable-sized segments, respectively, to map processes efficiently between logical and physical addresses.

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Ahmed Ibrahim Ghnnam
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72 views

Chapter 6 Memory Management

Memory management is a key operating system task that involves allocating and sharing limited main memory among multiple active processes. It aims to maximize the number of processes in memory through techniques like relocation, protection, and sharing. The basic tools for memory management are paging and segmentation, which involve dividing programs and memory into small, fixed-sized pages and variable-sized segments, respectively, to map processes efficiently between logical and physical addresses.

Uploaded by

Ahmed Ibrahim Ghnnam
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Memory

Management
Memory
Management
Terms
Memory Management
Requirements
 Memory management is intended to satisfy the
following requirements:
 Relocation
 Protection
 Sharing
 Logical organization
 Physical organization
Relocation
 Programmers typically do not know in advance which other programs
will be resident in main memory at the time of execution of their
program

 Active processes need to be able to be swapped in and out of main


memory in order to maximize processor utilization

 Specifying that a process must be placed in the same memory


region when it is swapped back in would be limiting
 may need to relocate the process to a different area
of memory
Addressing Requirements
Protection
 Processes need to acquire permission to reference memory locations for
reading or writing purposes

 Location of a program in main memory is unpredictable

 Memory references generated by a process must be checked at run time

 Mechanisms that support relocation also support protection


Sharing
 Advantageous to allow each process access to the same copy of
the program rather than have their own separate copy

 Memory management must allow controlled access to shared


areas of memory without compromising protection

 Mechanisms used to support relocation support sharing


capabilities
Logical Organization
 Memory is organized as linear

 Segmentation is the tool that most readily satisfies


requirements
Physical Organization

Cannot leave the


Memory available for a Programmer does not
programmer with the
program plus its data know how much space
responsibility to manage
may be insufficient will be available
memory

overlaying allows various


modules to be assigned
the same region of
memory but is time
consuming to program
Memory Partitioning
 Memory management brings processes into main memory for
execution by the processor
 involves virtual memory
 based on segmentation and paging
 Partitioning
 used in several variations in some now-obsolete operating
systems
 does not involve virtual memory
Table 7.2
Memory
Management
Techniques
Fixed Partitioning
 Equal-size partitions
 any process whose size is less than
or equal to the partition size can be
loaded into an available partition

 The operating system can swap


out a process if all partitions are
full and no process is in the
Ready or Running state
 A program may be too big to fit in a partition
 program needs to be designed with the use of overlays

 Main memory utilization is inefficient


 any program, regardless of size, occupies an entire
partition
 internal fragmentation
 wasted space due to the block of data loaded being
smaller than the partition
Unequal Size Partitions
 Using unequal size partitions helps lessen the
problems
 programs up to 16M can be
accommodated without overlays
 partitions smaller than 8M allow smaller
programs to be accommodated with less
internal fragmentation
Memory Assignment
P n
a i
r n
F
t g
i
i
x
t
e
i
d
o
 The number of partitions specified at system
generation time limits the number of active
processes in the system
 Small jobs will not utilize partition space
efficiently
 Partitions are of variable length and number
 Process is allocated exactly as much memory as it
requires
 This technique was used by IBM’s mainframe
operating system, OS/MVT
Effect of
Dynamic
Partitioning
Dynamic Partitioning

External Fragmentation
• memory becomes more and more fragmented
• memory utilization declines

Compaction
• technique for overcoming external fragmentation
• OS shifts processes so that they are contiguous
• free memory is together in one block
• time consuming and wastes CPU time
Placement Algorithms

Best-fit First-fit Next-fit

• chooses the • begins to scan • begins to scan


block that is memory from memory from
closest in size the beginning the location
to the request and chooses of the last
the first placement
available and chooses
block that is the next
large enough available
block that is
large enough
Memory
Configuration
Example
Buddy System
 Comprised of fixed and dynamic partitioning
schemes
 Space available for allocation is treated as a
single block
 Memory blocks are available of size 2K words,
L ≤ K ≤ U, where
 2L = smallest size block that is allocated
 2U = largest size block that is allocated; generally 2U is the size of the
entire memory available for allocation
Buddy System Example
T R n
r e t
e p a
e r t
e i
s o
e n
Addresses
Logical

• reference to a memory location independent of the current


assignment of data to memory

Relative

• address is expressed as a location relative to some known


point (a particular example of logical address)

Physical or Absolute

• actual location in main memory


 Partition memory into equal fixed-size chunks (termed frames)
that are relatively small

 Process is also divided into small fixed-size chunks (termed pages)


of the same size

Pages Frames

• chunks of a • available
process chunks of
memory
Assignment of
Process to
Free Frames
Page Table
 Maintained by operating system for each process

 Contains the frame location for each page in the process

 Processor must know how to access for the current process

 Used by processor to produce a physical address


Data Structures
Logical Addresses
Logical address
= page # + offset within page

16-bit address

Page size = 1KB


= 210 Bytes
Logical-to-Physical Address
Translation - Paging
Segmentation
A program can be subdivided into segments
 may vary in length
 there is a maximum length
 Addressing consists of two parts:
 segment number
 an offset
 Similar to dynamic partitioning
 Eliminates internal fragmentation
Logical-to-Physical Address
Translation - Segmentation
 Memory Management
Summary
 one of the most important and complex tasks of an
operating system
 needs to be treated as a resource to be allocated to and
shared among a number of active processes
 desirable to maintain as many processes in main
memory as possible
 desirable to free programmers from size restriction in
program development
 basic tools are paging and segmentation (possible to
combine)
 paging – small fixed-sized pages
 segmentation – pieces of varying size

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