Virtual Memory

Operating System

Background
Code needs to be in memory to execute, but entire program
rarely used
Unusual routines, large data structures
Entire program code not needed at same time
Consider ability to execute partially-loaded program
Program no longer constrained by limits of physical memory
Each program takes less memory while running -> more
programs run at the same time
 Increased CPU utilization and throughput with no
increase in response time or turnaround time
Less I/O needed to load or swap programs into memory ->
each user program runs faster

Operating System
2

1
 Virtual memory
Virtual 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
More programs running concurrently
Less I/O needed to load or swap processes

3
Operating System

Virtual memory (Cont.)

Virtual address space – logical view of how process is
stored in memory
Usually start at address 0, contiguous addresses until
end of space
Meanwhile, physical memory organized in page frames
MMU must map logical to physical
Virtual memory can be implemented via:
Demand paging
Demand segmentation

Operating System
4

2
 Demand Paging
Could bring entire process into memory
at load time
Or bring a page into memory only when
it is needed
Less I/O needed, no unnecessary
I/O
Less memory needed
Faster response
More users
Similar to paging system with swapping
(diagram on right)
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

5
Operating System

Basic Concepts
With swapping, pager guesses which pages will be used before
swapping out again
Instead, pager brings in only those pages into memory
How to determine that set of pages?
Need new MMU functionality to implement demand paging
If pages needed are already memory resident
No difference from non demand-paging
If page needed and not memory resident
Need to detect and load the page into memory from storage
 Without changing program behavior
 Without programmer needing to change code

Operating System
6

3
 Valid-Invalid Bit
With each page table entry a valid–invalid bit is associated
(v  in-memory – memory resident, i  not-in-memory)
Initially valid–invalid bit is set to i on all entries
Example of a page table snapshot:

During MMU address translation, if valid–invalid bit in page

table entry is i  page fault

7
Operating System

Page Table When Some Pages Are Not in Main Memory

8
Operating System

4
 Steps in Handling Page Fault
1. If there is a reference to a page, first reference to that page
will trap to operating system
Page fault
2. Operating system looks at another table to decide:
Invalid reference  abort
Just not in memory
3. Find free frame
4. Swap page into frame via scheduled disk operation
5. Reset tables to indicate page now in memory
Set validation bit = v
6. Restart the instruction that caused the page fault

9
Operating System

Steps in Handling a Page Fault (Cont.)

10
Operating System

10

5
 Aspects of Demand Paging
Extreme case – start process with no pages in memory
OS sets instruction pointer to first instruction of process,
non-memory-resident -> page fault
And for every other process pages on first access
Pure demand paging
Actually, a given instruction could access multiple pages ->
multiple page faults
Hardware support needed for demand paging
Page table with valid / invalid bit
Secondary memory (swap device with swap space)
Instruction restart

11
Operating System

11

Free-Frame List
When a page fault occurs, the operating system must bring
the desired page from secondary storage into main memory.
Most operating systems maintain a free-frame list -- a pool
of free frames for satisfying such requests.

Operating system typically allocate free frames using a

technique known as zero-fill-on-demand -- the content of
the frames zeroed-out before being allocated.
When a system starts up, all available memory is placed on
the free-frame list.

12
Operating System

12

6
 Stages in Demand Paging – Worse Case

1. Trap to the operating system

2. Save the user registers and process state
3. Determine that the interrupt was a page fault
4. Check that the page reference was legal and determine the location of
the page on the disk
5. Issue a read from the disk to a free frame:
1. Wait in a queue for this device until the read request is serviced
2. Wait for the device seek and/or latency time
3. Begin the transfer of the page to a free frame

13
Operating System

13

Stages in Demand Paging (Cont.)

6. While waiting, allocate the CPU to some other user

7. Receive an interrupt from the disk I/O subsystem (I/O completed)
8. Save the registers and process state for the other user
9. Determine that the interrupt was from the disk
10. Correct the page table and other tables to show page is now in memory
11. Wait for the CPU to be allocated to this process again
12. Restore the user registers, process state, and new page table, and then
resume the interrupted instruction

Operating System
14

14

7
 Performance of Demand Paging
Page Fault Rate 0  p  1
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 )

15
Operating System

15

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 (nanosec)
= 200 + p x 7,999,800 (nanosec)

Operating System
16

16

8
 What Happens if There is no Free Frame?

Used up by process pages

Page replacement – find some page in memory, but not really in use,
page it out
Algorithm – terminate? swap out? replace the page?
Performance – want an algorithm which will result in minimum
number of page faults

Same page may be brought into memory several times

17
Operating System

17

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

Operating System
18

18

9
 Need For Page Replacement

19
Operating System

19

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
- Write victim frame to disk if dirty
3. Bring the desired page into the (newly) free frame; update the page and
frame tables
4. Continue the process by restarting the instruction that caused the trap

Note now potentially 2 page transfers for page fault – increasing EAT

Operating System
20

20

10
 Page Replacement

21
Operating System

21

Page and Frame Replacement Algorithms

Frame-allocation algorithm determines

How many frames to give each process
Which frames to replace
Page-replacement algorithm
Want lowest page-fault rate on both first access and re-access
Evaluate algorithm by running it on a particular string of memory
references (reference string) and computing the number of page
faults on that string
String is just page numbers, not full addresses
Repeated access to the same page does not cause a page fault
Results depend on number of frames available

Page-replacement algorithms: OPT(MIN), LRU, FIFO, CLOCK

Operating System
22

22

11
 Graph of Page Faults Versus The Number of Frames

23
Operating System

23

FIFO algorithm
View frames allocated to the process as a circular buffer
When the buffer is full, the oldest page is replaced: first-in first-out
Simple implementation: just a pointer to cycle the frames
Reference string: 232152453252
3 frames (3 pages can be in memory at a time per process)

Adding more frames can cause more page faults!

Belady’s Anomaly

24
Operating System

24

12
 FIFO Illustrating Belady’s Anomaly

25
Operating System

25

OPT algorithm
The page that will not be referenced for the longest time is replaced

How do you know this?

Can’t read the future

Used for measuring how well your algorithm performs

26
Operating System

26

13
 Least Recently Used (LRU) algorithm

Use past knowledge rather than future

Replace page that has not been used in the most amount of time
Associate time of last use with each page

Generally good algorithm and frequently used

But how to implement?

27
Operating System

27

LRU Algorithm (Cont.)

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 find
smallest value
 Search through table needed
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
But each update more expensive
No search for replacement
LRU and OPT are cases of stack algorithms that don’t have
Belady’s Anomaly

Operating System
28

28

14
 Use Of A Stack to Record Most Recent Page References

29
Operating System

29

LRU Approximation Algorithms

LRU needs special hardware and still slow
Reference bit / use bit
With each page associate a bit, initially = 0
When page is referenced bit set to 1
Replace any with reference bit = 0 (if one exists)
 We do not know the order, however
Second-chance algorithm
Generally FIFO, plus hardware-provided reference bit
Clock replacement
If page to be replaced has
 Reference bit = 0 -> replace it
 reference bit = 1 then:
– set reference bit 0, leave page in memory
– replace next page, subject to same rules

Operating System
30

30

15
 second chance (CLOCK) algorithm
The frames for the process are treated as a circular buffer.

When a page is changed, the pointer will point to the next frame in the
buffer.

Each frame has a use bit. This bit is set to 1 when

A page is first loaded into the frame
The page in the frame is referenced

The page is only replaced at the frame with use bit = 0

While trying to find the page to replace, all use bits are reset to 0

31
Operating System

31

second chance (CLOCK) algorithm

NOTE: Asterisk (*) indicates reference/use bit = 1

32
Operating System

32

16
 Enhanced Second-Chance Algorithm

Improve algorithm by using reference bit and modify bit (if

available) in concert
Take ordered pair (reference, modify):
(0, 0) neither recently used not modified – best page to
replace
(0, 1) not recently used but modified – not quite as good,
must write out before replacement
(1, 0) recently used but clean – probably will be used again
soon
(1, 1) recently used and modified – probably will be used
again soon and need to write out before replacement
When page replacement called for, use the clock scheme but
use the four classes replace page in lowest non-empty class
Might need to search circular queue several times

33
Operating System

33

Thrashing
If a process does not have “enough” pages, the page-fault
rate is very high
Page fault to get page
Replace existing frame
But quickly need replaced frame back
This leads to:
 Low CPU utilization
 Operating system thinking that it needs to increase the
degree of multiprogramming
 Another process added to the system

Operating System
34

34

17
 Thrashing (Cont.)
Thrashing. A process is busy swapping pages in and out

35
Operating System

35

Demand Paging and Thrashing

Why does demand paging work?

Locality model
Process migrates from one locality to another
Localities may overlap
Why does thrashing occur?

 size of locality > total memory size

Limit effects by using local or priority page replacement

Operating System
36

36

18
 Working-Set Model
  working-set window  a fixed number of page references
Example: 10,000 instructions
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
Approximation of locality

37
Operating System

37

Working-Set Model (Cont.)

if D > m  Thrashing
Policy if D > m, then suspend or swap out one of the
processes

38
Operating System

38

19
 Page-Fault Frequency
More direct approach than WSS
Establish “acceptable” page-fault frequency (PFF) rate
and use local replacement policy
If actual rate too low, process loses frame
If actual rate too high, process gains frame

39
Operating System

39

Buddy System
Allocates memory from fixed-size segment consisting of physically-
contiguous pages
Memory allocated using power-of-2 allocator
Satisfies requests in units sized as power of 2
Request rounded up to next highest power of 2
When smaller allocation needed than is available, current chunk
split into two buddies of next-lower power of 2
 Continue until appropriate sized chunk available
For example, assume 256KB chunk available, kernel requests 21KB
Split into AL and AR of 128KB each
 One further divided into BL and BR of 64KB
– One further into CL and CR of 32KB each – one used to
satisfy request
Advantage – quickly coalesce unused chunks into larger chunk
Disadvantage - fragmentation

Operating System
40

40

20
 Buddy System Allocator

41
Operating System

41

21