Chapter 8

Operating
Systems:
Internals
and Design Chapter 8
Principles Virtual Memory
Eighth Edition
William Stallings
Hardware and Control Structures
 Two characteristics fundamental to memory management:
1) all memory references are logical addresses that are
dynamically translated into physical addresses at run time
2) a process may be broken up into a number of pieces that
don’t need to be contiguously located in main memory
during execution
 If these two characteristics are present, it is not necessary that all

of the pages or segments of a process be in main memory during
execution
Background
 Virtual memory – separation of user logical memory from physical
memory.
 Only part of the program needs to be in memory for execution.
 Logical address space can therefore be much larger than physical
address space.
 Allows address spaces to be shared by several processes.
 Allows for more efficient process creation.
 Virtual memory can be implemented via:

 Demand paging
 Demand segmentation
Virtual Memory vs. Physical
Memory
Physical memory
• main memory, the actual RAM
Virtual memory
• memory on disk
• allows for effective multiprogramming and relieves the
user of tight constraints of main memory
Virtual Memory That is Larger
Than Physical Memory
Adapted from Silberschatz, A. Galvin, P. and Gagne, G. (2013), Operating System Concepts
Demand Paging
 Bring a page into memory only when it is needed.
 Less I/O needed
 Less memory needed
 Faster response
 More users
 Page is needed  reference to it

 invalid reference  abort
 not-in-memory  bring to memory
Transfer of a Paged Memory to
Contiguous Disk Space
Valid-Invalid Bit
 With each page table entry a valid–invalid bit is associated
(V  in-memory, i  not-in-memory)
 Initially valid–invalid but is set to i on all entries.

 Example of a page table snapshot.
 During address translation, if valid–invalid bit in page table entry is i  page

fault.
Page Table When Some Pages Are
Not in Main Memory
Page Fault
 If there is ever a reference to a page, first reference will trap
to OS page fault
 OS looks at another table to decide:
 Invalid reference  abort.
 Just not in memory.
 Get empty frame.

 Swap page into frame.
 Reset tables, validation bit = 1.
 Restart instruction: Least Recently Used
Steps in Handling a Page
Fault
Process Creation
 Virtual memory allows other benefits during
process creation:
 Copy-on-Write
 Memory-Mapped Files
Copy-on-Write
 Copy-on-Write (COW) allows both parent and child
processes to initially share the same pages in memory.
 If either process modifies a shared page, only then is the
page copied.
 COW allows more efficient process creation as only
modified pages are copied.
 Free pages are allocated from a pool of zeroed-out pages.
Before Process 1 Modifies Page C
After Process 1 Modifies Page C
Memory-Mapped Files
 Memory-mapped file I/O allows file I/O to be treated as routine memory access
by mapping a disk block to a page in memory.
 A file is initially read using demand paging. A page-sized portion of the file is read
from the file system into a physical page. Subsequent reads/writes to/from the file
are treated as ordinary memory accesses.
 Simplifies file access by treating file I/O through memory rather than read()
write() system calls.
 Also allows several processes to map the same file allowing the pages in memory to
be shared.
Memory-Mapped Files
Page Replacement
 Prevent over-allocation of memory by modifying page-fault
service routine to include page replacement.
 Use modify (dirty) bit to reduce overhead of page transfers

 only modified pages are written to disk.
 Page replacement completes separation between logical memory

and physical memory – large virtual memory can be provided
on a smaller physical memory.
What happens if there is
no free frame?
 Page replacement – find some page in memory, but not really in
use, swap it out.
 algorithm
 performance – want an algorithm which will result in
minimum number of page faults.
 Same page may be brought into memory several times.
Need For Page Replacement
Basic Page Replacement
 Find the location of the desired page on disk.
 Find a free frame:

 If there is a free frame, use it.
 If there is no free frame, use a page replacement algorithm to select a victim
frame.
 Read the desired page into the (newly) free frame. Update the
page and frame tables.
 Restart the process.
Page Replacement
Page Replacement
Algorithms
 Want lowest page-fault rate.
 Evaluate algorithm by running it on a particular string of
memory references (reference string) and computing the
number of page faults on that string.
Exercise
Consider the following page reference string:
1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
 Assuming a paging scheme with 3 frames is initially empty.

Trace the allocation of pages to frames using
 FIRST IN FIRST OUT (FIFO)
 OPTIMAL
 LEAST RECENTLY USED (LRU) algorithm.
Exercise
• Reference string: 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
• 3 frames (3 pages can be in memory at a time per process)
1 1 4 5
2 2 1 3 9 page faults
3 3 2 4
1 1 5 4
• 4 frames 2 2 1 5 10 page faults
3 3 2
4 4 3
• FIFO Replacement – Belady’s Anomaly
▫ more frames  more page faults
FIFO Page Replacement
Reference string:
7, 0, 1, 2, 0, 3, 0, 4, 2, 3, 0, 3, 2, 1, 2, 0, 1, 7, 0, 1
Optimal Algorithm
 Replace page that will not be used for longest period of time.
 4 frames example
 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
 How do you know this?

 Used for measuring how well your algorithm performs.
Optimal Page Replacement
Reference string:
7, 0, 1, 2, 0, 3, 0, 4, 2, 3, 0, 3, 2, 1, 2, 0, 1, 7, 0, 1
Least Recently Used (LRU)
Algorithm
 Reference string: 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
1 5
2
3 5 4
4 3
 Counter implementation
 Every page entry has a counter; every time page is referenced
through this entry, copy the clock into the counter.
 When a page needs to be changed, look at the counters to
determine which are to change.
LRU Page Replacement
Reference string:
7, 0, 1, 2, 0, 3, 0, 4, 2, 3, 0, 3, 2, 1, 2, 0, 1, 7, 0, 1
Thrashing occurs when a
computer’s virtual memory
subsystem is in a constant
state of high paging activity.
A state in which the system

spends most of its time
swapping process pieces rather
than executing instructions
This causes the performance of

the computer to degrade or
collapse (performance
problems).
Solutions
To resolve thrashing due to excessive paging, a user can do any of the following:
 Increase the amount of RAM in the computer (generally the best long-term
solution).
 Decrease the number of programs being run on the computer.
 Replace programs that are memory-heavy with equivalents that use less
memory.
 Improve spatial locality.
 If a single process is too large for memory, there is nothing the OS can do.
That process will simply thrash.
 If the problem arises because of the sum of several processes:
 Figure out how much memory each process needs.
 Change scheduling priorities to run processes in groups that fit comfortably
in memory: must shed load.
Principle of Locality
 The operating system tries to guess, based on recent
history, which pieces are least likely to be used in the near
future
 Program and data references within a process tend to cluster
 Only a few pieces of a process will be needed over a short
period of time
 Therefore it is possible to make intelligent guesses about which
pieces will be needed in the future
 Avoids thrashing
Summary
 Virtual Memory
 Demand paging
 Valid invalid bit
 Page fault
 Page replacement algorithms
 FIFO
 LRU
 Optimal
 Thrashing

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Operating

 If these two characteristics are present, it is not necessary that all

 Virtual memory can be implemented via:

 Page is needed  reference to it

 Initially valid–invalid but is set to i on all entries.

 During address translation, if valid–invalid bit in page table entry is i  page

 Get empty frame.

 Use modify (dirty) bit to reduce overhead of page transfers

 Page replacement completes separation between logical memory

 Same page may be brought into memory several times.

 Find a free frame:

 Restart the process.

 Assuming a paging scheme with 3 frames is initially empty.

 How do you know this?

A state in which the system

This causes the performance of

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