Base and Limit Registers
A pair of base and limit registers define the logical address space
CPU must check every memory access generated in user mode to
be sure it is between base and limit for that user
Hardware Address Protection
Address Binding
Programs on disk, ready to be brought into memory to execute form an
input queue
Without support, must be loaded into address 0000
Inconvenient to have first user process physical address always at 0000
How can it not be?
Further, addresses represented in different ways at different stages of a
program’s life
Source code addresses usually symbolic
Compiled code addresses bind to relocatable addresses
i.e. “14 bytes from beginning of this module”
Linker or loader will bind relocatable addresses to absolute addresses
i.e. 74014
Each binding maps one address space to another
Binding of Instructions and Data to Memory
Address binding of instructions and data to memory addresses
can happen at three different stages
Compile time: If memory location known a priori, absolute
code can be generated; must recompile code if starting
location changes
Load time: Must generate relocatable code if memory
location is not known at compile time
Execution time: Binding delayed until run time if the
process can be moved during its execution from one memory
segment to another
Need hardware support for address maps (e.g., base and
limit registers)
Multistep Processing of a User Program
Logical vs. Physical Address Space
The concept of a logical address space that is bound to a
separate physical address space is central to proper memory
management
Logical address – generated by the CPU; also referred to
as virtual address
Physical address – address seen by the memory unit
Logical and physical addresses are the same in compile-time
and load-time address-binding schemes; logical (virtual) and
physical addresses differ in execution-time address-binding
scheme
Logical address space is the set of all logical addresses
generated by a program
Physical address space is the set of all physical addresses
generated by a program
Schematic View of Swapping
Context Switch Time including Swapping
If next processes to be put on CPU is not in memory, need to
swap out a process and swap in target process
Context switch time can then be very high
100MB process swapping to hard disk with transfer rate of
50MB/sec
Swap out time of 2000 ms
Plus swap in of same sized process
Total context switch swapping component time of 4000ms
(4 seconds)
Can reduce if reduce size of memory swapped – by knowing
how much memory really being used
System calls to inform OS of memory use via
request_memory() and release_memory()
Contiguous Allocation
Main memory must support both OS and user processes
Limited resource, must allocate efficiently
Contiguous allocation is one early method
Main memory usually into two partitions:
Resident operating system, usually held in low memory with
interrupt vector
User processes then held in high memory
Each process contained in single contiguous section of
memory
Contiguous Allocation (Cont.)
Relocation registers used to protect user processes from each
other, and from changing operating-system code and data
Base register contains value of smallest physical address
Limit register contains range of logical addresses – each
logical address must be less than the limit register
MMU maps logical address dynamically
Can then allow actions such as kernel code being transient
and kernel changing size
Hardware Support for Relocation and Limit Registers
Multiple-partition allocation
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
Operating system maintains information about:
a) allocated partitions b) free partitions (hole)
Dynamic Storage-Allocation Problem
How to satisfy a request of size n from a list of free holes?
First-fit: Allocate the first hole that is big enough
Best-fit: Allocate the smallest hole that is big enough; must
search entire list, unless ordered by size
Produces the smallest leftover hole
Worst-fit: Allocate the largest hole; must also search entire list
Produces the largest leftover hole
First-fit and best-fit better than worst-fit in terms of speed and storage
utilization
Fragmentation
External Fragmentation – total memory space exists to
satisfy a request, but it is not contiguous
Internal Fragmentation – allocated memory may be slightly
larger than requested memory; this size difference is memory
internal to a partition, but not being used
First fit analysis reveals that given N blocks allocated, 0.5 N
blocks lost to fragmentation
1/3 may be unusable -> 50-percent rule
Fragmentation (Cont.)
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
I/O problem
Latch job in memory while it is involved in I/O
Do I/O only into OS buffers
Now consider that backing store has same fragmentation
problems
