Virtual Memory

Chapter 8

Memory Hierarchy

CPU regs

8B

C a c h e

32 B

Memory

4 KB

disk

Register size: speed: $/Mbyte: line size: 4B x 32 1 ns

Cache 32 KB-8MB 2 ns $125/MB 32 B

Memory 2-3 GB 30 ns $0.20/MB 4 KB

Disk Memory 100-500 GB 8 ms $0.001/MB

4B

Larger slower cheaper

Types of Memory
Real memory
Main memory

Virtual memory
Memory on disk Allows for effective multiprogramming and relieves the user of tight constraints of main memory

Virtual Memory Properties

A process may be broken up into pieces that do not need to be located contiguously in main memory No need to load all pieces of a process in main memory A process may be swapped in and out of main memory such that it occupies different regions Memory references are dynamically translated into physical addresses at run time

Advantages:
More processes may be maintained in main memory With so many processes in main memory, it is very likely a process will be in the Ready state at any particular time (CPU efficiency) A process may be larger than all of main memory

A System with Virtual Memory (paging)

Each process has its own page table Each page table entry contains the frame number of the corresponding page in main memory or the disk address
Page Table
0: 1: Physical Addresses

Memory
0 1

Virtual Addresses

CPU

P-1:

N-1

Disk Address Translation: Hardware converts virtual addresses to physical addresses via page table

VM Address Translation
Parameters
P = 2p = page size (bytes) N = 2n = Virtual address limit M = 2m = Physical address limit
n1 virtual page number p p1 page offset 0 virtual address

address translation

m1 p p1 physical page number page offset

0
physical address

Page offset bits dont change as a result of translation

Execution of a Program
Operating system brings into main memory a few pieces of the program Resident set - portion of process that is in main memory

An interrupt is generated when an address is needed that is not in main memory - page fault
Operating system places the process in a blocking state and a DMA is started to get the page from disk An interrupt is issued when disk I/O is complete which causes the OS to place the affected process in the Ready Queue

Thrashing Swapping out a piece of a process just before that piece is needed The processor spends most of its time swapping pieces rather than executing user instructions

HERE

Draw a typical RAM and no free pages To explain Thrashing

Principle of Locality
Program and data references within a process tend to cluster Only a small portion of a process will be needed over a short period of time Possible to make intelligent guesses about which pieces will be needed in the future Therefore, principle of locality can be used to make virtual memory to work efficiently

Page Fault

Page table entry indicates virtual address not in memory OS exception handler invoked to move data from disk into memory

current process suspends, others can resume OS has full control over placement, etc.

Before fault
Memory Page Table
Virtual Address Physical Address

After fault
Memory Page Table

CPU

CPU

Disk

Disk

Servicing a Page Fault

Processor Signals Controller

(1) Initiate Block Read Processor

Reg

Read block of length P starting at disk address X and store starting at memory address Y

(3) Read Done Cache

Read Occurs

Direct Memory Access (DMA) under control of I/O controller Memory-I/O bus (2) DMA Transfer Memory

I/O Controller Signals Completion

Interrupt processor OS resumes suspended process

I/O controller

disk Disk

disk Disk

Direct Memory Access

Takes control of the system from the CPU to transfer data to and from memory over the system bus Only one bus master, usually the DMA controller due to tight timing constraints.

Cycle stealing is used to transfer data on the system bus. i.e.

the instruction cycle is suspended so that data can be transferred by DMA controller in bursts. CPU can only access the bus between these bursts

No interrupts occur (except at the very end)

Support Needed for Paging

Hardware support for address translation is critically needed for paging OS must be able to move pages efficiently between secondary memory and main memory (DMA takes care of it) Software/Hardware support to handle page faults

Page Tables
Virtual Page Number Memory resident page table
(physical page Valid or disk address) 1 1 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 1

Physical Memory

Disk Storage (swap file or regular system file)

Address Translation
page table base register
VPN acts as table index

virtual address n1 p p1 virtual page number (VPN) page offset

valid modify physical page number (PPN)

if valid=0 then page not in memory

m1

p p1
page offset

physical page number (PPN)

physical address

Page Table Entries

Present bit (P) == valid bit Modify bit (M) == dirty bit is needed to indicate if the page has been altered since it was last loaded into main memory If no change has been made, the page does not have to be written back to the disk when it needs to be swapped out In addition, a Reference (or use) Bit can be used to indicate if the page is referenced (read) since it was last checked. This can be particularly useful for Clock Replacement Policy (to be studied later)

Translation Lookaside Buffer

Each virtual memory reference can cause two physical memory accesses
one to fetch the page table entry one to fetch the data

To overcome this problem a high-speed cache is set up for page table entries
called the TLB - Translation Lookaside Buffer

TLB stores most recently used page table entries. Stores VP numbers and the mapping for it. Uses associative mapping (i.e. many virtual page numbers map to the same TLB index). Given a virtual address, processor examines the TLB first

If page table entry is present (a hit), the frame number is retrieved and the real address is formed
If page table entry is not found in the TLB (a miss), the page number is used to index the page table, and TLB is updated to include the new page entry

Use of a TLB (Translation Lookaside Buffer)

Multi-level Page Tables

Given:

Level 2 Tables
(4 MB)

4KB (212) page size 32-bit address space 4-byte PTE

Problem:

Level 1 Root Table

(4 KB)

Would need a 4 MB page table!

220 *4 bytes

Common solution

multi-level page tables e.g., 2-level table Level 1 table: 1024 entries, each of which points to a Level 2 page table. Level 2 table: 1024 entries, each of which points to a page

...

Page tables are stored in VM

Page Size ?
Smaller page size less amount of internal fragmentation
(due to the last page of a process)

Smaller page size More pages required per process Larger page tables Page tables in virtual memory
(i.e. double page faults possible)

Also, secondary memory is designed to efficiently transfer large blocks of data which favors a larger page size.

 **HERE ** Small page size large number of pages will fit in main memory (large working set) As time goes on during execution, the pages in memory will all contain portions of the process near recent references Page faults low

Increased page size causes pages to contain references which may not be resident in memory (because fewer number of page frames per process) Page faults rise

Example Page Sizes

In Linux, type getconf PAGESIZE (or PAGE_SIZE)

Fetch Policy
Determines when a page should be brought into memory Demand paging: bring pages into main memory only when it is referenced
Many page faults when the process first started

Prepaging brings in more pages than needed

More efficient to bring in pages that reside contiguously on the disk

Replacement Policy
If memory is full, which page should be replaced? Page that is least likely to be referenced in the near future Most policies predict the future behavior on the basis of past behavior Frame Locking
Associate a lock bit with each frame. If frame is locked, it may not be replaced Kernel, Control structures, I/O buffers

Basic Replacement Algorithms

Optimal policy
Selects the page for which the time to the next reference is the longest Impossible to have perfect knowledge of future events

First-In, First-Out (FIFO)

Simplest to implement Page that has been in memory the longest is replaced (may be needed again soon!)

Least Recently Used (LRU)

Replaces the page that has not been referenced for the longest time By the principle of locality, this should be the page least likely to be referenced in the near future Each page could be tagged with the time of last reference (extra overhead!)

Clock Policy
Additional bit called use bit When a page is first loaded in memory use bit = 1 When the page is referenced use bit = 1 Going clockwise, the first frame encountered with the use bit = 0 is replaced. During the search for replacement, use bit is changed from 1 to 0

Example of a clock policy operation

Resident Set Size

Fixed-allocation
gives a process a fixed number of pages within which to execute when a page fault occurs, one of the pages of that process is replaced

Variable-allocation
number of pages allocated to a process varies over the lifetime of the process

Variable Allocation, Global Scope

Easiest to implement; Adopted by many OS OS keeps list of free frames When a page fault occurs, a free frame is added to the resident set of this process If no free frame, replaces one from any process (replacement algorithm picks!)

Variable Allocation, Local Scope

When a new process is added, allocate to it a number of page frames based on the application type, or other criteria (resident set) page fault select a page for replacement from the resident set of this process

From time to time; increase/decrease the resident set size to improve performance

Load Control & Process Suspension

Load Control determines the optimum number of processes to be resident in main memory As multiprogramming level increases, processor utilization rises, but Too many processes small resident set for each process thrashing Too few processes higher probability for all processes to be blocked idle CPU time increases

If multiprogramming level is to be reduced, some processes must be suspended Here are some good choices for suspension: Lowest priority process Faulting process (will soon be blocked anyway)
high probability that it does not have its working set in main memory

Last process activated (least likely to have its working set resident) Process with smallest resident set
this process requires the least future effort to reload

Largest process
generates the most free frames making future suspensions unlikely