OPERATING SYSTEMS CS F372

BIJU K RAVEENDRAN & TEAM

LECT #41: MEMORY MANAGEMENT

 Buddy System
• Entire space available is treated as a single block
of 2U
• If a request of size s such that 2U-1 < s <= 2U,
entire block is allocated
– Otherwise block is split into two equal
buddies
– Process continues until smallest block greater
than or equal to s is generated

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 Paging
• Divide physical memory into fixed-sized blocks [frames]
– Size is power of 2
• Divide logical memory into blocks of same size [pages]
• Keep track of all free frames
• To run a process of size N pages, need to find N free
frames [Max]
• Set up a page table to translate logical to physical
addresses
• Backing storage split into pages
• Internal fragmentation
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 Paging
• Operating system maintains a page table for each process
– Contains the frame location for each page in the process
– Memory address consist of a page number and offset
within the page
• 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

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 Address Translation Scheme
page number page offset
p d
m-n n
• For given logical address space 2m and page size 2n
• Size of a page is typically a power of 2, varying
between 512bytes & 16MB per page
– The selection of a power of 2 as page size
makes the translation of logical address into a
page number and page offset easy

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 Paging Hardware

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Paging Model of Logical & Physical Memory

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 Paging – Calculating internal fragmentation
• Page size = 2,048 bytes
• Process size = 72,766 bytes [35 pages + 1,086 bytes]
• Internal fragmentation of 2,048 - 1,086 = 962 bytes
• Worst case fragmentation = 1 frame – 1 byte
• On average fragmentation = 1 / 2 frame size
• So small frame sizes desirable?
• But each page table entry takes memory to track
• Page sizes growing over time
– Solaris supports two page sizes – 8 KB and 4 MB
– Intel supports two page sizes – 4KB and 4MB
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 Free Frames

Before allocation After allocation

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 Assignment of Process Pages to free frames

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 Assignment of Process Pages to free frames

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 Page Tables - Example

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• Internal fragmentation results
• To reduce internal fragmentation we need to reduce the
page size.
– there will be an overhead of page table entry.
• Page sizes now in use are typically between 4KB and 8KB.
• Some CPU and kernel supports multiple page sizes.
Example : Solaris 8KB and 4MB pages
• Main advantage of paging is the separation of user view of
memory & actual physical memory.
• User process cannot access memory outside of its page
table.

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• Disadvantage:
Paging
– Internal fragmentation
• Reduce the page size to reduce fragmentation
– Overhead because of increase in More page
table entries
• Advantage:
– Separation of user view of memory & actual
physical memory
– User process cannot access memory outside
of its page table
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