Memory Management

Roadmap
 Basic requirements of Memory
Management
 Memory Partitioning
 Basic blocks of memory management
 Paging
 Segmentation
 The need for memory
management
 Memory is cheap today, and getting
cheaper
 But applications are demanding more and
more memory, there is never enough!
 Memory Management, involves swapping
blocks of data from secondary storage.
 Memory I/O is slow compared to a CPU
 The OS must do swapping timely to maximise
the CPU’s efficiency
 Memory Management

Memory needs to be allocated to ensure a

reasonable supply of ready processes to
consume available CPU time.
 Memory Management
Requirements
 Relocation
 Protection
 Sharing
 Logical organisation
 Physical organisation
 Requirements: Relocation
 The programmer does not know where
the program will be placed in memory
when it is executed,
 it may be swapped to disk and return to main
memory at a different location (relocated)
 Memory references must be translated to
the actual physical memory address
 Requirements: Protection
 Processes should not be able to reference
memory locations in another process
without permission
 Must be checked at run time that a
process must not go to any other location
in the memory
 Requirements: Sharing
 Allow several processes to access the
same portion of memory
 Better to allow each process access to the
same copy of the program rather than
have their own separate copy as it saves
time,money and resources also
 Requirements: Logical
Organization
 Memory is organized linearly and used by
user
 Programs are written in modules
 Modules can be written and compiled
independently
 Different degrees of protection given to
modules (read-only, execute-only)
 Share modules among processes
 Requirements: Physical
Organization
 Cannot leave the programmer with the
responsibility to manage memory
 Memory available for a program plus its
data may be insufficient
 Programmer does not know how much
space will be available
 Partitioning

 Partitioning may be defined as a process

of dividing memory into parts.
 The partitioning is of 2 types:-
 Fixed partitoning
 Dynamic partitioning
 Fixed Partitioning
 Equal-size partitions
 In this memory is divided into
equal sizes
 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
a process out of a partition
 If none are in a ready or running
state
 Fixed Partitioning Problems
 A program may not fit in a partition.
 Main memory use is inefficient.
 Any program, no matter how small, occupies
an entire partition.
 This is results in internal fragmentation.
 Solution – Unequal Size
Partitions
 Lessens both problems
 but doesn’t solve completely
 Smaller programs can be placed in
smaller partitions, reducing internal
fragmentation
Fixed Partitioning
 Remaining Problems with
Fixed Partitions
 The number of active processes is limited
by the system
 i.e limited by the pre-determined number of
partitions
 A large number of very small process will
not use the space efficiently
 In either fixed or variable length partition
methods
 Dynamic Partitioning
 Partitions are of variable length and
number
 Process is allocated exactly as much
memory as required
Dynamic Partitioning (cont)
 External Fragmentation
 Memory external to all
processes is fragmented
 Can resolve using
compaction
 OS moves processes so that
they are contiguous
 Time consuming and wastes
CPU time
 Dynamic Partitioning (cont)
 Operating system must decide which
free block to allocate to a process
 Best-fit algorithm
 Chooses the block that is closest in size to the
request
 Since smallest block is found for process, the
smallest amount of fragmentation is left
 Dynamic Partitioning (cont)
 First-fit algorithm
 Scans memory form the beginning and
chooses the first available block that is large
enough
 Fastest
 May have many process loaded in the front
end of memory that must be searched over
when trying to find a free block
 Dynamic Partitioning (cont)
 Worst-fit
 More often allocate a block of largest block of
memory
 It wastes memory
 Memory Management
Memory Management Terms
Terms
Term Description
Frame Fixed-length block of main
memory.
Page Fixed-length block of data in
secondary memory (e.g. on disk).
Segment Variable-length block of data
that resides in secondary
memory.
 Paging
 Partition memory into small equal fixed-
size chunks and divide each process into
the same size chunks
 The chunks of a process are called pages
 The chunks of memory are called frames
 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
Processes and Frames
A.0
A.1
A.2
A.3
D.0
B.0
D.1
B.1
D.2
B.2
C.0
C.1
C.2
C.3
D.3
D.4
Page Table
 Segmentation
 A segment can be defined as a logical grouping of
instructions, such as a subroutine, array, or a data area.

 A program is a collection of segments.

 Segmentation is a technique for managing these

segments.

 Divide a process into unequal size blocks called

segments.
Segmentation(cont)
 Segmentation(cont)
 A program can be subdivided into
segments
 Segments may vary in length
 There is a maximum segment length
 Addressing consist of two parts
 a segment number and
 an offset
 Segmentation is similar to dynamic
partitioning
Segmentation(cont)
 Paging vs Segmentation
• The main memory partitioned into frames or
blocks.
• The logical address space divided into pages
by compiler or MMU.
• Suffers from internal fragmentation or page
break.
• Operating system maintains the page table.
• Does not supports the user view of memory
• Processor uses the page number and
displacement to calculate absolute address.
• Multilevel paging is possible .
 Continued
• The main memory partitioned into segments.
• The logical address space divided into segment
specified by the programmer.
• Suffers from external fragmentation.
• Operating system maintains the segment table.
• Supports the user view of memory
• Processor uses the segment number and
displacement to calculate absolute address.
• Multilevel segmentation is possible. But no use.