Year: 2024-2025

Fall Semester

Operating Systems
Dr. Wafaa Samy
Dr. Hanaa Eissa

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.1 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 Chapter 9: Main Memory
(Part 2)

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 Chapter 9: Memory Management

 Background
 Contiguous Memory Allocation
 Segmentation
 Paging
 Swapping

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.3 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 Contiguous Allocation
 Main memory must support both OS and user processes.
 Limited resource, must allocate efficiently. We therefore need to allocate
main memory in the most efficient way possible.
 Contiguous memory allocation is one early method.
 Main memory is usually divided into two partitions: one for the operating
system and one for the user processes.
• Resident operating system, usually held in low memory with interrupt
vector.
• User processes then held in high memory.
• We usually want several user processes to reside in memory at the same
time.
• Each process contained in single contiguous section of memory.
 We therefore need to consider how to allocate available memory to the
processes that are waiting to be brought into memory.
 In contiguous memory allocation, each process is contained in a single
section of memory that is contiguous to the section containing the next
process.
Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.4 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 Variable Partition
 Variable partition: One of the simplest methods of allocating memory
is to assign processes to variably sized partitions in memory,
where each partition may contain exactly one process.
• The OS keeps a table indicating which parts of memory are
available and which are occupied.
• Initially, all memory is available for user processes and is considered
one large block of available memory, a hole.
• Eventually, memory contains a set of holes of various sizes.
 As processes enter the system, the operating system takes into account
the memory requirements of each process and the amount of available
memory space in determining which processes are allocated memory.
 When a process is allocated space, it is loaded into memory, where it
can then compete for CPU time.
 When a process terminates, it releases its memory, which the operating
system may then provide to another process.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.5 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 Variable Partition (Cont.)
 For Example:
• Initially, the memory is fully utilized, containing processes 5, 8,
and 2.
• After process 8 leaves, there is one contiguous hole.
• Later on, process 9 arrives and is allocated memory.
• Then, process 5 departs, resulting in two noncontiguous
holes.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.6 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 Variable Partition (Cont.)
 Multiple-partition allocation:
• Degree of multiprogramming limited by number of partitions.
• Variable-partition sizes for efficiency (sized to a given
process’ needs).
• Hole – block of available memory; holes of various size are
scattered throughout memory.
• When a process arrives, it is allocated memory from a hole
large enough to accommodate it.
• Process exiting frees its partition, adjacent free partitions
combined (merged) to form one larger hole.
• Operating system maintains information about:
a) allocated partitions.
b) free partitions (holes).

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.7 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 Dynamic Storage-Allocation Problem
 How to satisfy a request of size n from a list of free holes?
 There are many solutions to this problem.
• The first-fit, best-fit, and worst-fit strategies are the most commonly
used to select a free hole from the set of available holes.
1. First-fit: Allocate the first hole that is big enough.
• We can stop searching as soon as we find a free hole that is large
enough.
2. Best-fit: Allocate the smallest hole that is big enough; must search entire list,
unless ordered by size.
• This method produces the smallest leftover hole.
3. Worst-fit: Allocate the largest hole; must also search the entire list, unless it
is sorted by size.
• This strategy produces the largest leftover hole, which may be more
useful than the smaller leftover hole from a best-fit approach.
 Note:
• Simulations have shown that both first-fit and best-fit are better than
worst-fit in terms of speed and storage utilization.
• First-fit and best-fit: first fit is generally faster.
Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.8 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 Example (1)
 Given five memory partitions of 100 KB, 500 KB, 200 KB, 300 KB,
and 600 KB (in order), how would each of the first-fit, best-fit, and
worst-fit algorithms place processes of 212 KB, 417 KB, 112 KB, and
426 KB (in order)?
 Which algorithm makes the most efficient use of memory?

memory
partitions

100
500
200
300
600

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.9 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 Example (1): First-Fit Algorithm
 Given five memory partitions of 100 KB, 500 KB, 200 KB, 300 KB,
and 600 KB (in order), how would each of the first-fit, best-fit, and
worst-fit algorithms place processes of 212 KB, 417 KB, 112 KB, and
426 KB (in order)?
 Which algorithm makes the most efficient use of memory?

memory
partitions

100
500
200
300
600

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.10 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 Example (1): Best-Fit Algorithm
 Given five memory partitions of 100 KB, 500 KB, 200 KB, 300 KB,
and 600 KB (in order), how would each of the first-fit, best-fit, and
worst-fit algorithms place processes of 212 KB, 417 KB, 112 KB, and
426 KB (in order)?
 Which algorithm makes the most efficient use of memory?

memory
partitions

100
500
200
300
600

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.11 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 Example (1): Worst-Fit Algorithm
 Given five memory partitions of 100 KB, 500 KB, 200 KB, 300 KB,
and 600 KB (in order), how would each of the first-fit, best-fit, and
worst-fit algorithms place processes of 212 KB, 417 KB, 112 KB, and
426 KB (in order)?
 Which algorithm makes the most efficient use of memory?
• Best-fit algorithm.
memory
partitions

100
500
200
300
600

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.12 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 Example (2)

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.13 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 Example (2) Solution

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.14 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 Example (2) Solution (Cont.)

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.15 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 Fragmentation
 Memory fragmentation can be internal as well as external.
1. External Fragmentation – total memory space exists to
satisfy a request, but it is not contiguous.
• Storage is fragmented into a large number of small
holes. This fragmentation problem can be severe.
• If all these small pieces of memory were in one big free
block instead, we might be able to run several more
processes.
• Both the first-fit and best-fit strategies for memory
allocation suffer from external fragmentation.

2. Internal Fragmentation – allocated memory may be slightly

larger than requested memory; this size difference is memory
internal to a partition, but not being used.
Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.16 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 Fragmentation (Cont.)
 One solution: Reduce external fragmentation by compaction:
Shuffle memory contents to place all free memory together in
one large block.
• Compaction is possible only if relocation is dynamic, and is
done at execution time.

 Another possible solution to the external-fragmentation

problem is to permit the logical address space of processes
to be noncontiguous, thus allowing a process to be allocated
physical memory wherever such memory is available.
• This is the strategy used in paging, the most common memory-
management technique for computer systems.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.17 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 Segmentation
 Segmentation: Memory-management scheme that supports user
view of memory.
• A program is a collection of segments.
• A segment is a logical unit such as:
main program
procedure
function
method
object
local variables, global variables
common block
stack
symbol table
arrays
Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.18 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 User’s View of a Program

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.19 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 Logical View of Segmentation

4
1

3 2
4

user space physical memory space

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.20 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 Paging
 Physical address space of a process can be noncontiguous; process is
allocated physical memory whenever the latter is available:
 The basic method for implementing paging involves:
• Divide physical memory into fixed-sized blocks called frames.
 Size is power of 2, between 512 bytes and 16 Mbytes.
• Divide logical memory into blocks of same size called pages.
• Backing store likewise split into pages (fixed-sized blocks).
• Keep track of all free frames.
• To run a program of size N pages, need to find N free frames and load
program.
• Set up a per-process page table to translate logical to physical addresses.
 Advantages:
• Avoids external fragmentation.
• Avoids problem of varying sized memory chunks.
 Disadvantage: Still have Internal fragmentation.
 Because it offers numerous advantages, paging in its various forms is used
in most operating systems.
Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.21 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 Address Translation Scheme
 The logical address generated by CPU is divided into:
• Page number (p) – used as an index into a page table which contains
base address of each page in physical memory.
• Page offset (d) – combined with base address to define the physical
memory address that is sent to the memory unit.
page number page offset
p d
m -n n
• For given logical address space 2m and page size 2n
# means number
 Paging Arithmetic laws:
• Page size = frame size = 2n (where n is the # of bits in offset part).
• Logical address space (size) = 2m (where m the # of bits in logical address).
• Logical address space (size) = # of pages x page size
• Physical address space (size) = 2x (where x is the # of bits in physical address).
• Physical address space (size) = # of fames x frame size
• # of pages = # of entries (records) in page table = # of pages
Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.22 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 Example (3)
 Consider a logical address space of 64 pages of 1024 words each, mapped
onto a physical memory of 32 frames.
a) How many bits are there in the logical address?
b) How many bits are there in the physical address?
page number page offset
 Answer: p d
a) m =? m -n n
Size of logical address space = 2m = # of pages × page size

2m = 64 × 1024 = 26 × 210 =216
 Number of required bits in the physical address = m = 16 bits
b) Let (x) is number of bits in the physical address , x =?
 Size of physical address space = 2x
 Size of physical address space = # of frames × frame size
 (frame size = page size )
 Size of physical address space = 32 × 1024
 2x =25 × 210 = 215
 Number of required bits in the physical address = x = 15 bits
Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.23 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 Paging Hardware
 The steps taken by the MMU to translate a logical address generated by
the CPU to a physical address:
1. Extract the page number p and use it as an index into the page table.
2. Extract the corresponding frame number f from the page table.
3. Replace the page number p in the logical address with the frame number f.

• The page number is used as an index into a per-process page table.

• The page table contains the base address of each frame in physical
memory, and the offset is the location in the frame being referenced.

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.24 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
 Paging Model of Logical and Physical Memory

Example:
• In the logical address, n=2 and m=4.
• Using a page size of 4 bytes and a
physical memory of 32 bytes (8 frames).

Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition

Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.25 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy
Operating System Concepts – 10th Edition
Silberschatz, Galvin and Gagne ©2018 8.26 Modified by Dr. Wafaa Samy