OPERATING SYSTEMS CS F372

BIJU K RAVEENDRAN & TEAM

LECT #40: MEMORY MANAGEMENT

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Swapping
A process can be swapped temporarily out of memory to a backing
store, and then brought back into memory for continued execution
• Backing store – fast disk large enough to accommodate copies of
all memory images for all users; must provide direct access to
these memory images
• Roll out, roll in – swapping variant used for priority-based
scheduling algorithms; lower-priority process is swapped out so
higher-priority process can be loaded and executed
• Major part of swap time is transfer time; total transfer time is
directly proportional to the amount of memory swapped
• The swapped process must swap back to the same location if the
binding is done at compile time or load time.
• Modified versions of swapping are found on many systems (i.e.,
UNIX, Linux, and Windows)
• System maintains a ready queue of ready-to-run processes which
have memory images on disk
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 Schematic View of Swapping

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 Allocation Mechanisms
• Contiguous allocation
– Single partition allocation
• Base and limit registers are used
– Multiple partition allocation
• Holes [external fragmentation]
• Partitioned allocation
– Equal size partitions
• Program should fit in a partition else design with overlays
• Internal fragmentation
– Unequal size partitions
• Queue for each partition
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 Dynamic Partitioning
• Partitions are of variable length and number
• Process is allocated exactly as much memory as
required
• Eventually get holes in the memory. This is
called external fragmentation
• Must use compaction to shift processes so they
are contiguous and all free memory is in one
block

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 Dynamic Partitioning Placement Algorithm
• Operating system must decide which free block to
allocate to a process
• FIT algorithms to find the block
– Best-fit algorithm
• Chooses the block that is closest in size to the request
– First-fit algorithm
• Chooses the first available [from top] block that is large enough
– Next-fit
• Scans memory from the location of the last placement
– Worst-fit
• Allocate the largest hole
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