Operating Systems

Prof. Navneet Goyal

Department of Computer Science & Information Systems
BITS, Pilani
Topics for Today
• Memory Management
▫ Requirements
• Partitioning
▫ Fixed
▫ Variable
▫ Dynamic
• Paging
• Segmentation
Memory Management
• Objective – to keep several processes in
memory
• Why we may want to do this?
▫ Increase CPU utilization
▫ Improve response times
• Many memory-management algorithms
• Selection of algorithm/scheme depends on
many factors (specially HW)
• Each algorithm requires its own HW
support
Memory Management
• Subdividing memory to accommodate
multiple processes
• Memory needs to be allocated efficiently
so as to pack as many processes into
memory as possible
Memory Management
• Basic Requirements
• Memory Partitioning
▫ Used only in Kernel Memory Management
• Building blocks of Memory Management
▫ Paging
▫ Segmentation
Virtual Memory
• Universal approach to Memory
Management
• Based on Paging or
• Combination of Paging & Segmentation
• Processes ‘get’ unlimited MM
• Virtual address space on disk
• Hardware support for Paging &
Segmentation
 What Is Memory Management?
• Uni-programming System
2 partitions of Main Memory
 For OS
 For user program in execution
• Multiprogramming environment
▫ Many user processes
▫ Limited Main Memory
▫ User part of MM is partitioned by OS
Memory Management Requirements
• Relocation
• Protection
• Sharing
• Logical Organization
• Physical Organization
Relocation
• Programmer does not know where the
program will be placed in memory when it
is executed
• While the program is executing, it may be
swapped to disk and returned to main
memory at a different location (relocated)
• Memory references must be translated in
the code to actual physical memory
address
Protection
• Protecting OS from user processes
• Protecting User processes from one another
• Satisfying Relocation requirement increases
the difficulty of satisfying Protection
requirement
• Location of program in MM is unpredictable
 Protection

• Dynamic calculation of addresses at run-time

• Memory references generated by process
must be checked at run time
• Operating system cannot anticipate all of the
memory references a program will make
• Protection is provided by Processor and not
by OS
Protection
Sharing
• Allow several processes to access the
same portion of memory
• Better to allow each process (person)
access to the same copy of the program
rather than have their own separate
copy
Logical Organization
• 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
Physical Organization
• 2-level organization of memory

• Flow of information between main &

secondary memory is a major concern

• Should programmers be burdened?

• Programmer does not know (at the time of

coding) how much space will be available
and where it will be
Memory Partitioning

• Fixed partitioning
▫ Equal size
▫ Unequal size
• Dynamic Partitioning
Fixed Partitioning
• Equal-size partitions
▫ any process whose size is less than or equal
to the partition size can be loaded into an
available partition
▫ if all partitions are full, the operating
system can swap a process out of a
partition
▫ a program may not fit in a partition. The
programmer must design the program with
overlays*
* Find out what is overlaying
Fixed Partitioning
• Main memory use is inefficient
• Any program, no matter how small,
occupies an entire partition
• This is called internal fragmentation
Placement Algorithm with Partitions
• Equal-size partitions
▫ Placement is trivial
▫ because all partitions are of equal size, it
does not matter which partition is used
• Unequal-size partitions
▫ can assign each process to the smallest
partition within which it will fit
▫ queue for each partition
▫ processes are assigned in such a way as to
minimize wasted memory within a partition
IBM Mainframe
OS – OS/MFT
Dynamic Partitioning
• Partitions are of variable length and
number
• Process is allocated exactly as much
memory as required
• Starts off well!
• Eventually leads to lot of holes in the
memory
• External fragmentation
• Must use compaction to shift processes so
they are contiguous and all free memory is
in one block
IBM Mainframe
OS – OS/MVT
Dynamic Partitioning Placement
Algorithm
• Since compaction is expensive, OS must
judiciously decide how to assign
processes to memory
• Operating system must decide which free
block to allocate to a process
▫ Best-fit algorithm
▫ First-fit algorithm
▫ Next-fit algorithm
▫ Worst-fit algorithm
Dynamic Partitioning Placement
Algorithm
• Best-fit algorithm
▫ Chooses the block that is closest in size to
the request
▫ Worst performer overall
▫ Since smallest block is found for process,
the smallest fragment is left
▫ Memory compaction must be done more
often
Dynamic Partitioning Placement
Algorithm
• First-fit algorithm
▫ 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 Placement
Algorithm
• Next-fit
▫ Begins to scan the memory from the location of
the last placement & chooses the next available
block that is large enough
▫ More often leads to allocation of a block at the
end of the memory
▫ Results in quick fragmentation of the largest
block of free memory which usually appears at
the end of the memory
▫ Compaction is required to obtain a large block
at the end of memory
Dynamic Partitioning Placement
Algorithm
• Worst-fit
▫ Scans the whole memory to find the biggest
block
▫ Holes are of substantial size
▫ Makes sense?
▫ Compare with Best-fit!
Worst-fit
Comparison of Placement
Algorithms
• First-fit is not only the simplest, but
usually the best and the fastest as well
• Next-fit produces slightly worse results
than First-fit
• Best-fit is usually the worst performer
Replacement Algorithms
• Which process to SWAP out?
▫ FIFO
▫ Optimal pare replacement
▫ LRU
▫ Counting based page replacement
 LFU
 MFU
Buddy System
• Entire space available is treated as a
single block of 2U
• If a request of size s such that 2U-1 < s <=
2U, entire block is allocated
▫ Otherwise block is split into two equal
buddies
▫ Process continues until smallest block
greater than or equal to s is generated