Paging

Introduction
• Paging is a memory management technique in
which the memory is divided into fixed size
pages. Paging is used for faster access to data.
When a program needs a page, it is available
in the main memory as the OS copies a certain
number of pages from your storage device to
main memory. Paging allows the physical
address space of a process to be
noncontiguous.
Paging
• Logical address space of a process can be noncontiguous;
process is allocated physical memory whenever it is available.
 Avoids external fragmentation

• Divide physical memory into fixed-sized blocks called frames

(size is power of 2, between 512 bytes and 16 MB).
• Divide logical memory into blocks of same size called pages.
• Page Size = Frame Size
• To run a program of size n pages, need to find n free frames
and load program.
• Set up a page table to translate logical to physical addresses.

Operating System Concepts

Example

• Let us consider the main memory size 16 Kb and

Frame size is 1 KB therefore the main memory will be
divided into the collection of 16 frames of 1 KB each.
• There are 4 processes in the system that is P1, P2, P3
and P4 of 4 KB each. Each process is divided into
pages of 1 KB each so that one page can be stored in
one frame.
• Initially, all the frames are empty therefore pages of
the processes will get stored in the contiguous way.
• Let us consider that, P2 and P4 are moved to waiting state
after some time. Now, 8 frames become empty and therefore
other pages can be loaded in that empty place. The process
P5 of size 8 KB (8 pages) is waiting inside the ready queue.
• Given the fact that, we have 8 non contiguous frames
available in the memory and paging provides the flexibility of
storing the process at the different places. Therefore, we can
load the pages of process P5 in the place of P2 and P4.
Address generated by CPU is divided into
• Page number(p): Number of bits required to represent the
pages in Logical Address Space or Page number
• Page offset(d): Number of bits required to represent
particular word in a page or page size of Logical Address
Space or word number of a page or page offset.

Physical Address is divided into

• Frame number(f): Number of bits required to represent the
frame of Physical Address Space or Frame number.
• Frame offset(d): Number of bits required to represent
particular word in a frame or frame size of Physical Address

• The offset field identifies a particular location within page

or frame.
Address Translation Scheme
• 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
Paging Hardware
Concept of paging
• Every process have its own page table.

• Each page table contains the list of frames allocated to

the process.

• Page table is indexed by page no and each page no.

contains the corresponding frame no. of the memory
where that page is allocated.

Operating System Concepts

Paging Model of Logical and Physical Memory
Free Frames

Before allocation After allocation

Paging Example

Page address in physical

memory = (page size * Frame
number) + offset

Operating System Concepts

Memory Protection
• Valid-invalid bit attached to each entry in the
page table:
– “valid” indicates that the associated page is in the
process’ physical address space, and is thus a legal
page.
– “invalid” indicates that the page is not in the
process’ physical address space.

Operating System Concepts

Valid (v) or Invalid (i) Bit In A Page
Table

Operating System Concepts

Cell addressin : byte addressable , two byte addressable and so on

10 bit: -> 2 power 10 address i.e 1024 address locations:

Example:
14 bit address : size of logical ADDRESS SPACE
IN CASE OF 1 BYTE ADDRESSABLE

IN CASE OF 2 BYTE ADDRESSABLE:

Cell addressin : byte addressable , two byte addressable and so on

10 bit: -> 2 power 10 address i.e 1024 address locations:

Example:
14 bit address : size of logical ADDRESS SPACE
IN CASE OF 1 BYTE ADDRESSABLE

IN CASE OF 2 BYTE ADDRESSABLE:

Example : 64 kb , bit _________ addressable

1 byte address
2 byte addressing
Example:
LA 24b
PA 16b
ps1KB

Find page number bits and frame number bit,

offset

Operating System Concepts

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
User’s View of a Program

Operating System Concepts

Logical View of Segmentation
1

4
1

3 2
4

user space physical memory space

Operating System Concepts

Thrashing

• A process that is spending more time paging than executing is said to be

thrashing. In other words it means, that the process doesn't have enough
frames to hold all the pages for its execution, so it is swapping pages in
and out very frequently to keep executing. Sometimes, the pages which
will be required in the near future have to be swapped out.
• Initially when the CPU utilization is low, the process scheduling
mechanism, to increase the level of multiprogramming loads multiple
processes into the memory at the same time, allocating a limited amount
of frames to each process. As the memory fills up, process starts to spend
a lot of time for the required pages to be swapped in, again leading to low
CPU utilization because most of the proccesses are waiting for pages.
Hence the scheduler loads more processes to increase CPU utilization, as
this continues at a point of time the complete system comes to a stop.
Contiguous memory allocation
Memory Allocation

Contiguous Allocation
• Each process allocated a single contiguous
chunk of memory
Non-contiguous Allocation
• Parts of a process can be allocated non
contiguous chunks of memory
Contiguous Allocation

Multiple Partition Method:

• Memory broken up into fixed size partitions
• But the size of two partitions may be different
• Each partition can have exactly one process
• When a process arrives, allocate it a free partition
Problems:
• Maximum size of process bound by max.
partition size
• Large internal fragmentation possible
Contiguous Allocation

Fixed Partition Method:

• 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
• 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
Fragmentation
• As processes are loaded and removed from
memory, the free memory space is broken
into little pieces. It happens after sometimes
that processes can not be allocated to
memory blocks considering their small size
and memory blocks remains unused. This
problem is known as Fragmentation.
Fragmentation
External Fragmentation: total memory space exists to
satisfy a request, but it is not contiguous.
Internal Fragmentation: Memory block assigned to
process is bigger. Some portion of memory is left
unused as it can not be used by another process.
Reduce external fragmentation by compaction
• Shuffle memory contents to place all free memory
together in one large block. This scheme can be
expensive.
Another solution to external fragmentation is to use
non contiguous memory allocation.
NonContiguous Memory Allocation
• In non-contiguous storage allocation, a
program is divided into several blocks that
may be placed in different parts of main
memory. It is more difficult for an operating
system to control non-contiguous storage
allocation. The benefit is that if main memory
has many small holes available instead of a
single large hole, then operating system can
often load and execute a program that would
otherwise need to wait.
NonContiguous Memory Allocation
• Paging
• Segmentation
• Hybrid Approach: segmentation with paging
Paging
• In this, process gets memory wherever available.
• Memory Manager divides the physical memory into
equal sized blocks called frames
• Memory Manager divides the logical memory into
equal sized blocks called pages
– Frame size usually a power of 2 between 512 and 8192
bytes
• sizeof(page) = sizeof(frame)
• When a process is to be executed, its pages are
loaded into any available memory frame from the
backing store.
Paging
Every address generated by CPU is divided into
• Page number (p) -- page number is used as an
index into a page table which contains base
address of each page in physical memory.
• Page offset (d) -- page offset is combined with
base address to define the physical memory
address.
Paging Hardware
Paging model of logical and
physical memory
Paging Example
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
User’s View of a program
Logical View of Segmentation
Segmentation Architecture
• Logical address consists of a two tuple:
<segment-number, offset>,
• Segment table –each table entry has:
– base – contains the starting physical address where the
segments reside in memory
– limit – specifies the length of the segment
• Segment-table base register (STBR) points to the
segment table’s location in memory
• Segment-table length register (STLR) indicates
number of segments used by a program.
Segmentation Hardware
Example of Segmentation
Memory Management

Memory management in OS is a technique of controlling and

managing the functionality of Random access memory (primary
memory). It is used for achieving better concurrency, system
performance, and memory utilization.
Memory management moves processes from primary memory to
secondary memory and vice versa. It also keeps track of available
memory, memory allocation, and unallocated.
Introduction
• Memory management keeps track of each and every
memory location either it is allocated to some process
or it is free.
• It checks how much memory is to be allocated to
processes.
• It decides which process will get memory at what time.
• It tracks whenever some memory gets freed or
unallocated and correspondingly it updates the status.
• Main memory and registers are only storage CPU can
access directly
Registers
• Memory management provides protection by
using two registers, a base register and a limit
register.
• The base register holds the smallest legal physical
memory address. Its also called relocation
register.
• The limit register specifies the size of the range.
• For example: If the base register holds 300040
and limit register is 120900 then the program can
legally access all addresses from 300040 to
420940.
Address Binding
• Binding is a mapping from one address space to
the another
• 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.
– 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.
Logical and Physical Address Space
• Logical Address : An address generated by CPU is
commonly referred as a logical address. It is also
called as virtual address.
The set of all logical addresses generated by a
program is a logical address space.
• Physical Address : Its the address seen by
memory unit.
The set of all physical addresses corresponding to
logical addresses is a physical address space.
Logical and Physical Address Space
• The compile time and load time address
binding methods generate identical logical
and physical addresses. The execution time
address binding scheme results in differing
logical and physical addresses.
Memory Management Unit
• The run time mapping from virtual to physical address
is done by the hardware device called memory
management unit(MMU).
• The user program deals with logical addresses; it never
sees the real physical addresses
• The value in the base register is added to every address
generated by a user process which is treated as offset
at the time it is sent to memory. For example, if the
base register value is 10000, then an attempt by the
user to use address location 100 will be dynamically
reallocated to location 10100.
Dynamic relocation using a relocation
register
Swapping
• A process can be swapped temporarily out of memory to a
backing store, and then brought back into memory for
continued execution
• Swap in: Move a process from backing store to memory

• Swap out: Move a process from memory to backing store

• Roll out, roll in – swapping variant used for priority-based

scheduling algorithms; lower-priority process is swapped out
so higher-priority process can be loaded and executed
• Backing store is commonly a fast disk. It must be large enough
to accommodate copies of all memory images for all users
and it must provide direct access to these memory images.
Swapping
• A process that is swapped out will be swapped
back into the same memory spaceit occupied
previously. This restriction is dictated by the
method of address binding.
• The system maintains a ready queue
consisting of all processes whose memory
images are on the backing store or in memory
and are ready to run.
Schematic view of Swapping
Swapping
• The major part of the swap time is transfer
time.
• Never swap a process with pending I/O.
Swap Time
• Swap Time: Seek Time + Transfer Time

Example
• Seek Time = 8ms
• Transfer Time = 200ms
• Swap Time = 208ms
Chapter 9: Memory Management
• Background
• Swapping
• Contiguous Allocation
• Paging
• Segmentation
• Segmentation with Paging

Operating System Concepts

• In computer science, locality of reference, also
known as the principle of locality, is the
tendency of a processor to access the same
set of memory locations repetitively over a
short period of time.

Operating System Concepts

Background

• Program must be brought into memory and

placed within a process for it to be run.

• Input queue – collection of processes on the

disk that are waiting to be brought into
memory to run the program.

• User programs go through several steps

before being run.

Operating System Concepts

• Memory manager is used to keep track of the status of memory
locations, whether it is free or allocated. It addresses primary
memory by providing abstractions so that software perceives a
large memory is allocated to it.
• Memory manager permits computers with a small amount of main
memory to execute programs larger than the size or amount of
available memory. It does this by moving information back and
forth between primary memory and secondary memory by using
the concept of swapping.
• The memory manager is responsible for protecting the memory
allocated to each process from being corrupted by another process.
If this is not ensured, then the system may exhibit unpredictable
behavior.
• Memory managers should enable sharing of memory space
between processes. Thus, two programs can reside at the same
memory location although at different times.

Operating System Concepts

Multistep Processing of a User Program

Operating System Concepts

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).

Operating System Concepts

Logical vs. Physical Address Space
• 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.
Operating System Concepts
Memory-Management Unit (MMU)
• Hardware device that maps virtual to physical
address.

• In MMU scheme, the value in the relocation

register is added to every address generated by a
user process at the time it is sent to memory.

• The user program deals with logical addresses; it

never sees the real physical addresses.
Operating System Concepts
Dynamic relocation using a relocation register

Operating System Concepts

Dynamic Loading
• Routine is not loaded until it is called
• Better memory-space utilization; unused
routine is never loaded.
• Useful when large amounts of code are
needed to handle infrequently occurring
cases.
• No special support from the operating system
is required, implemented through program
design.

Operating System Concepts

Dynamic Linking
• Linking postponed until execution time.
• Small piece of code, stub, used to locate the
appropriate memory-resident library routine.
• Stub replaces itself with the address of the
routine, and executes the routine.
• Operating system needed to check if routine is
in processes’ memory address.
• Dynamic linking is particularly useful for
libraries.
Operating System Concepts
Overlays
• Keep in memory only those instructions and
data that are needed at any given time.

• Needed when process is larger than amount

of memory allocated to it.

• Implemented by user, no special support

needed from operating system, programming
design of overlay structure is complex

Operating System Concepts

Overlays for a Two-Pass Assembler

Operating System Concepts

Swapping
• A process can be swapped temporarily out of memory to a backing
store, and then brought back into memory for continued execution.

• Backing store – fast disk large enough to accommodate copies of all

memory images for all users; must provide direct access to these
memory images.

• Roll out, roll in – swapping variant used for priority-based

scheduling algorithms; lower-priority process is swapped out so
higher-priority process can be loaded and executed.

• Major part of swap time is transfer time; total transfer time is

directly proportional to the amount of memory swapped.

• Modified versions of swapping are found on many systems, i.e.,

UNIX, Linux, and Windows.
Operating System Concepts
Schematic View of Swapping

Operating System Concepts

Contiguous Allocation
• Main memory usually into two partitions:
– Resident operating system, usually held in low memory
with interrupt vector.
– User processes then held in high memory.

• Single-partition allocation
– Relocation-register scheme used to protect user processes
from each other, and from changing operating-system
code and data.
– Relocation register contains value of smallest physical
address; limit register contains range of logical addresses –
each logical address must be less than the limit register.

Operating System Concepts

Hardware Support for Relocation and Limit Registers

Operating System Concepts

Contiguous Allocation (Cont.)
• Multiple-partition allocation
– 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.
– Operating system maintains information about:
a) allocated partitions b) free partitions (hole)

OS OS OS OS

process 5 process 5 process 5 process 5

process 9 process 9

process 8 process 10

process 2 process 2 process 2 process 2

Operating System Concepts

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.

Operating System Concepts

Operating System Concepts
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.
• 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.

Operating System Concepts

Paging
• Logical address space of a process can be noncontiguous;
process is allocated physical memory whenever the latter is
available.
• Divide physical memory into fixed-sized blocks called frames
(size is power of 2, between 512 bytes and 16 MB).
• Divide logical memory into blocks of same size called pages.
• 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 page table to translate logical to physical addresses.
• Internal fragmentation.

Operating System Concepts

• RAM size = 256 MB
• How many bits required in the address field to
address each byte of the memory?
• FRAME size = 64 KB
• How many frames?
• How many bits required in the address field to
address each frame?
• How many bits required to address every byte within
the frame?
Operating System Concepts
Address Translation Scheme
• 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.

Operating System Concepts

Address Translation Architecture

Operating System Concepts

Concept of paging
• Every process have its own page table.

• Each page table contains the list of frames

allocated to the process.

• Page table is indexed by page no and each page

no. contains the corresponding frame no. of the
memory where that page is allocated.

Operating System Concepts

Paging Example

Operating System Concepts

Operating System Concepts
Paging
Example

Operating System Concepts

Free Frames

Before allocation After allocation

Operating System Concepts

Memory Protection
• Memory protection implemented by
associating protection bit with each frame.

• Valid-invalid bit attached to each entry in the

page table:
– “valid” indicates that the associated page is in the
process’ logical address space, and is thus a legal
page.
– “invalid” indicates that the page is not in the
process’ logical address space.
Operating System Concepts
Valid (v) or Invalid (i) Bit In A Page
Table

Operating System Concepts

Page Table Structure
• Hierarchical Paging

• Hashed Page Tables

• Inverted Page Tables

Operating System Concepts

Shared Pages
• Shared code
– One copy of read-only (reentrant) code shared among
processes (i.e., text editors, compilers, window
systems).
– Shared code must appear in same location in the
logical address space of all processes.

• Private code and data

– Each process keeps a separate copy of the code and
data.
– The pages for the private code and data can appear
anywhere in the logical address space.

Operating System Concepts

Shared Pages Example

Operating System Concepts

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
User’s View of a Program

Operating System Concepts

Logical View of Segmentation
1

4
1

3 2
4

user space physical memory space

Operating System Concepts

Segmentation Architecture
• Logical address consists of a two tuple:
<segment-number, offset>,
• Segment table – maps two-dimensional physical
addresses; each table entry has:
– base – contains the starting physical address where the
segments reside in memory.
– limit – specifies the length of the segment.
• Segment-table base register (STBR) points to the
segment table’s location in memory.
• Segment-table length register (STLR) indicates number
of segments used by a program;
segment number s is legal if s < STLR.
Operating System Concepts
Segmentation Hardware

Operating System Concepts

Segmentation Architecture (Cont.)
• Relocation.
– dynamic
– by segment table

• Sharing.
– shared segments
– same segment number

• Allocation.
– first fit/best fit
– external fragmentation

Operating System Concepts

Segmentation Architecture (Cont.)
• Protection. With each entry in segment table
associate:
– validation bit = 0  illegal segment
– read/write/execute privileges
• Protection bits associated with segments; code
sharing occurs at segment level.
• Since segments vary in length, memory allocation
is a dynamic storage-allocation problem.
• A segmentation example is shown in the
following diagram

Operating System Concepts

Segmentation with Paging
• The MULTICS system solved problems of
external fragmentation and lengthy search
times by paging the segments.

• Solution differs from pure segmentation in

that the segment-table entry contains not the
base address of the segment, but rather the
base address of a page table for this segment.

Operating System Concepts

MULTICS Address Translation Scheme

Operating System Concepts