Virtual Memory
Chapter Three
Chapter 3: Virtual Memory
Background
Demand Paging
Page Replacement
Thrashing
Objectives
To describe the benefits of a virtual memory system
To explain the concepts of demand paging, page-replacement algorithms,
and allocation of page frames
To discuss the thrashing problem.
Virtual Memory
Virtual memory is a technique that allows the
execution of processes that are not completely in
memory.
One major advantage of this scheme is that
programs can be larger than physical memory.
Further, virtual memory abstracts main memory
into an extremely large, uniform array of storage,
separating logical memory as viewed by the user
from physical memory.
Background
Virtual memory involves the 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 That is Larger Than Physical Memory
Virtual-address Space
Shared Library Using Virtual Memory
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
Lazy swapper – never swaps a page into memory unless page will
be needed
Swapper that deals with pages is a pager
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 bit is set to i on all entries
Example of a page table snapshot:
Frame # valid-invalid bit
v
v
v
v
i
….
i
i
page table
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 a reference to a page, first reference to that
page will trap to operating system:
page fault
1. Operating system looks at another table to decide:
Invalid reference abort
Just not in memory
2. Get empty frame
3. Swap page into frame
4. Reset tables
5. Set validation bit = v
6. Restart the instruction that caused the page fault
Steps in Handling a Page Fault
Virtual to Physical Address Translation (Mapping)
Algorithm In The Paging Scheme
The machine uses TLB (translation look-aside buffer) in the cache
and PT (page tables) in the main memory.
Given the page size (= frame size), the virtual addresses generated
by the CPU which consists of: Page #, offset (p,d) and the access
type(AT): Read-only(R), Read-Write(RW), or Execute-only (E), use
the following algorithm:
IF p >= PTLR THEN trap ("Invalid page number")
//* page# >= # of pages for this process *//
IF p in TLB THEN
IF NOT AT in protection THEN trap ("memory-protection violation")
ELSE
"Cache Hit"
Physical add. = frame# * page(frame) size + d
ENDIF
ELSE
IF in PT presence/absence bit (valid/invalid bit) = present (valid) THEN
// * this page is currently loaded in a frame of the main memory *//
IF NOT AT in protection THEN trap ("memory-protection violation")
ELSE
"Cache Miss"
Physical add. = frame# * page(frame) size + d
ENDIF
ELSE
// * this page is not in the main memory, it's in the disk. must be swapped in according to the paging
replacement algorithm *//
Trap ("page fault") ENDIF
Performance of Demand Paging
Demand paging can significantly affect the performance of a computer system. Let's
compute the effective access time for a demand-paged memory.
For most computer systems, the memory-access time (ma) ranges from 10 to 200
nanoseconds.
As long as we have no page faults, the effective access time is equal to the memory
access time.
If, however a page fault occurs, we must first read the relevant page from disk and
then access the desired word.
Page Fault Rate 0 p 1.0
if p = 0 no page faults
if p = 1, every reference is a fault
Effective Access Time (EAT)
EAT = (1 – p) x memory access+ p (page fault overhead
+ swap page out + swap page in + restart overhead)
Demand Paging Example
Memory access time = 200 nanoseconds
Average page-fault service time = 8 milliseconds
EAT = (1 – p) x 200 + p (8 milliseconds)
= (1 – p ) x 200 + p x 8,000,000
= 200 + p x 7,999,800
If one access out of 1,000 causes a page fault, then
EAT = 8.2 microseconds.
This is a slowdown by a factor of 40!!
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
Page Replacement
If we increase the degree of multiprogramming we are
over-allocating memory.
Prevent over-allocation of memory by modifying page-
fault service routine to include page replacement
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
But if we use demand paging we must solve Two major problems:
Develop Frame-allocation algorithms, if we have multiple processes in
memory, we must decide how many frames to allocate to each process.
Develop Page-replacement algorithms, When page replacement is required,
we must select the frames that are to be replaced.
Need For Page Replacement
Basic Page Replacement
1. Find the location of the desired page on disk
2. 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
3. Bring the desired page into the (newly) free frame;
update the page and frame tables
4. 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
In all our examples, the reference string is
1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
Graph of Page Faults Versus The Number of Frames
FIFO Page Replacement
The simplest page-replacement algorithm is a first-in,
first-out (FIFO) algorithm.
A FIFO replacement algorithm associates with each
page the time when that page was brought into memory
(FIFO queue).
When a page must be replaced, the oldest page is
chosen.
The FIFO page-replacement algorithm is easy to
understand and program. However, its performance is
not always good.
FIFO Page Replacement
there are 15 faults altogether
First-In-First-Out (FIFO) Algorithm
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
4 frames
1 1 5 4
2 2 1 5 10 page faults
3 3 2
4 4 3
Belady’s Anomaly: more frames more page faults
FIFO Illustrating Belady’s Anomaly
Optimal Algorithm
An optimal page-replacement algorithm has the lowest page-fault rate of all
algorithms (called OPT or MIN). It is simply this:
Replace the 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
1 4
2 6 page faults
3
4 5
How do you know this?
Used for measuring how well your algorithm performs
Optimal Page Replacement
9 page faults
Least Recently Used (LRU) Algorithm
replace the page that has not been used for the longest period of time
Reference string: 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 2, 5, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5
1 1 1 1 5
2 2 2 2 2
3 5 5 4 4
4 4 3 3 3
Counter implementation
Every page entry has a time-of-use field; every time page is
referenced, copy the CPU clock/counter into the time-of-use field
When a page needs to be replaced, look at the time-of-use field
values to determine which page should be replaced
LRU Page Replacement
12 page faults
LRU Algorithm (Cont.)
Stack implementation – keep a stack of page numbers in a double link form:
Page referenced:
move it to the top
requires 6 pointers to be changed
No search for replacement
Use Of A Stack to Record The Most Recent Page
References
Counting Algorithms
Keep a counter of the number of references that have been made to
each page
The least frequently used (LFU) Algorithm: replaces page with
smallest count
The most frequently used (MFU) Algorithm: based on the argument
that the page with the smallest count was probably just brought in and
has yet to be used
Allocation of Frames
How do we allocate the fixed amount of free memory
among the various processes?
Each process needs minimum number of pages
Example: IBM 370 – 6 pages to handle Storage location to
storage location MOVE instruction:
instruction is 6 bytes, might span 2 pages
2 pages to handle from
2 pages to handle to
Two major allocation schemes
fixed allocation
priority allocation
Fixed Allocation
The easiest way to split m frames among n processes is
to give everyone an equal share, m/n frames. This
scheme is called Equal allocation
For example, if there are 100 frames and 5 processes,
give each process 20 frames.
Proportional allocation
we allocate available memory to each process according to its size.
si = size of process pi
S = si
m = total number of frames
si
ai = allocation for pi = m
S
m = 64
s1 = 10
s 2 = 127
10
a1 = 64 5
137
127
a2 = 64 59
137
Priority Allocation
Use a proportional allocation scheme using
priorities rather than size
If process Pi generates a page fault,
select for replacement one of its frames
select for replacement a frame from a process
with lower priority number
Global vs. Local Allocation
Global replacement – process selects a replacement frame from
the set of all frames; one process can take a frame from another
Local replacement – each process selects from only its own set of
allocated frames
With a local replacement strategy, the number of frames allocated to
a process does not change.
With global replacement, a process may happen to select only
frames allocated to other processes, thus increasing the number of
frames allocated to it (assuming that other processes do not choose
its frames for replacement).
Global replacement generally results in greater system throughput
and is therefore the more common method.
Thrashing
If a process does not have “enough” frames, the page-fault rate is very high.
If the process does not have the number of frames it needs to support pages in
active use, it will quickly page-fault.
At this point, it must replace some page.
However, since all its pages are in active use, it must replace a page that will
be needed again right away.
Consequently, it quickly faults again, and again, and again, replacing pages
that it must bring back in immediately.
Thrashing a process is busy swapping pages in and out, it is spending more
time paging than executing.
Cause of thrashing
This leads to:
low CPU utilization
operating system thinks that it needs to increase the degree of
multiprogramming
another process added to the system
Thrashing (Cont.)
Demand Paging and Thrashing
Why does demand paging work?
Locality model
A process is composed of several different localities. Process
migrates from one locality to another.
A locality is a set of pages that are actively used together.
Localities may overlap
Why does thrashing occur?
size of locality > total memory size
Thrashing
Working-Set Model.
Page-Fault Frequency Scheme.
Working-Set Model
working-set window a fixed number of page references
Example: 10,000 instruction
WSSi (working set of Process Pi) =
total number of pages referenced in the most recent (varies in
time)
if too small will not encompass entire locality
if too large will encompass several localities
if = will encompass entire program
D = WSSi total demand frames
if D > m Thrashing
Policy if D > m, then suspend one of the processes
Working-set model
Page-Fault Frequency Scheme
Establish “acceptable” page-fault rate
If actual rate too low, process loses frame
If actual rate too high, process gains frame
Conclusion
Virtual memory is commonly implemented by demand
paging.
Demand paging is used to reduce the number of frames
allocated to a process.
We need both page-replacement and frame-allocation
algorithms.
End of chapter Three(3)
