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
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F
t g
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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
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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
