GEEKSFORGEEKS

Requirements of Memory Management System

Memory management keeps track of the status of each memory location, whether it is allocated
or free. It allocates the memory dynamically to the programs at their request and frees it for
reuse when it is no longer needed. Memory management meant to satisfy some requirements
that we should keep in mind.

These Requirements of memory management are:

1. Relocation – The available memory is generally shared among a number of processes in a

multiprogramming system, so it is not possible to know in advance which other programs will
be resident in main memory at the time of execution of this program. Swapping the active
processes in and out of the main memory enables the operating system to have a larger pool
of ready-to-execute process.

When a program gets swapped out to a disk memory, then it is not always possible that when
it is swapped back into main memory then it occupies the previous memory location, since the
location may still be occupied by another process. We may need to relocate the process to a
different area of memory. Thus there is a possibility that program may be moved in main
memory due to swapping.

Open In App
 The figure depicts a process image. The process image is occupying a continuous region of
main memory. The operating system will need to know many things including the location of
process control information, the execution stack, and the code entry. Within a program, there
are memory references in various instructions and these are called logical addresses.

After loading of the program into main memory, the processor and the operating system must
be able to translate logical addresses into physical addresses. Branch instructions contain the
address of the next instruction to be executed. Data reference instructions contain the address
of byte or word of data referenced.

2. Protection – There is always a danger when we have multiple programs at the same time as
one program may write to the address space of another program. So every process must be
protected against unwanted interference when other process tries to write in a process
whether accidental or incidental. Between relocation and protection requirement a trade-off
occurs as the satisfaction of relocation requirement increases the difficulty of satisfying the
protection requirement.

Prediction of the location of a program in main memory is not possible, that’s why it is
impossible to check the absolute address at compile time to assure protection. Most of the
programming language allows the dynamic calculation of address at run time. The memory
protection requirement must be satisfied by the processor rather than the operating system
because the operating system can hardly control a process when it occupies the processor.
Thus it is possible to check the validity of memory references.

3. Sharing – A protection mechanism must have to allow several processes to access the same
portion of main memory. Allowing each processes access to the same copy of the program
rather than have their own separate copy has an advantage.

For example, multiple processes may use the same system file and it is natural to load one
copy of the file in main memory and let it shared by those processes. It is the task of Memory
management to allow controlled access to the shared areas of memory without compromising
the protection. Mechanisms are used to support relocation supported sharing capabilities.

4. Logical organization – Main memory is organized as linear or it can be a one-dimensional

address space which consists of a sequence of bytes or words. Most of the programs can be
organized into modules, some of those are unmodifiable (read-only, execute only) and some of
those contain data that can be modified. To effectively deal with a user program, the operating

Open In App
 system and computer hardware must support a basic module to provide the required
protection and sharing. It has the following advantages:
Modules are written and compiled independently and all the references from one module to
another module are resolved by `the system at run time.
Different modules are provided with different degrees of protection.
There are mechanisms by which modules can be shared among processes. Sharing can be
provided on a module level that lets the user specify the sharing that is desired.

5. Physical organization – The structure of computer memory has two levels referred to as main
memory and secondary memory. Main memory is relatively very fast and costly as compared
to the secondary memory. Main memory is volatile. Thus secondary memory is provided for
storage of data on a long-term basis while the main memory holds currently used programs.
The major system concern between main memory and secondary memory is the flow of
information and it is impractical for programmers to understand this for two reasons:
The programmer may engage in a practice known as overlaying when the main memory
available for a program and its data may be insufficient. It allows different modules to be
assigned to the same region of memory. One disadvantage is that it is time-consuming for
the programmer.
In a multiprogramming environment, the programmer does not know how much space will
be available at the time of coding and where that space will be located inside the memory.

Reference: Internals and design Principles,7th edition by William Stallings

Article Tags : Operating Systems

Read Full Article

A-143, 9th Floor, Sovereign Corporate

Tower, Sector-136, Noida, Uttar Pradesh
- 201305

Open In App
 Company Explore
About Us Job-A-Thon Hiring Challenge

Legal Hack-A-Thon

Careers GfG Weekly Contest

In Media Offline Classes (Delhi/NCR)

Contact Us DSA in JAVA/C++

Advertise with us Master System Design

GFG Corporate Solution Master CP

Placement Training Program GeeksforGeeks Videos

Geeks Community

Languages DSA

Python Data Structures

Java Algorithms

C++ DSA for Beginners

PHP Basic DSA Problems

GoLang DSA Roadmap

SQL DSA Interview Questions

R Language Competitive Programming

Android Tutorial

Data Science & ML Web Technologies

Data Science With Python HTML
Data Science For Beginner CSS
Machine Learning Tutorial JavaScript
ML Maths TypeScript
Data Visualisation Tutorial ReactJS
Pandas Tutorial NextJS
NumPy Tutorial NodeJs
NLP Tutorial Open In App Bootstrap
 Deep Learning Tutorial Tailwind CSS

Python Tutorial Computer Science

Python Programming Examples GATE CS Notes

Django Tutorial Operating Systems

Python Projects Computer Network

Python Tkinter Database Management System

Web Scraping Software Engineering

OpenCV Tutorial Digital Logic Design

Python Interview Question Engineering Maths

DevOps System Design

Git High Level Design

AWS Low Level Design

Docker UML Diagrams

Kubernetes Interview Guide

Azure Design Patterns

GCP OOAD

DevOps Roadmap System Design Bootcamp

Interview Questions

School Subjects Commerce

Mathematics Accountancy
Physics Business Studies
Chemistry Economics
Biology Management
Social Science HR Management
English Grammar Finance

Income Tax

UPSC Study Material Preparation Corner

Polity Notes Company-Wise Recruitment Process
Geography Notes Open In App Resume Templates
 History Notes Aptitude Preparation
Science and Technology Notes Puzzles
Economy Notes Company-Wise Preparation
Ethics Notes Companies
Previous Year Papers Colleges

Competitive Exams More Tutorials

JEE Advanced Software Development
UGC NET Software Testing
SSC CGL Product Management
SBI PO

SBI Clerk Project Management

Linux
IBPS PO Excel
IBPS Clerk All Cheat Sheets

Free Online Tools Write & Earn

Typing Test Write an Article

Image Editor Improve an Article

Code Formatters Pick Topics to Write

Code Converters Share your Experiences

Currency Converter Internships

Random Number Generator

Random Password Generator

@GeeksforGeeks, Sanchhaya Education Private Limited, All rights reserved

Open In App