DV1460 / DV1492:

Real-Time Operating Systems

08:15-10:00 Thursday, September 14th, 2017

The Memory Subsystem.

§3-3.3.1 (pg 181-198)

• Programmers see a simple abstraction of memory.
• It can be cut up into many pieces.
• Single global address space.
• Pointers link pieces together into data- structures.
• The interface to the O/S is simple:
• Ask for more memory.
• Agree to give some back?
• Ideally: large, fast and cheap.
• Really: too slow, too small and too expensive.
• The memory manager abstracts the memory hierarchy and provides a simple interface.

• Without a memory manager there is no abstraction: physical addresses.
• Program sees the entire physical address space (partly reserved for OS).

• Addresses in the program are sent to the memory chips: e.g. LOAD $23, R1
• No way to do multiprogramming; only one program in memory.
• Programs use hardcoded addresses in physical memory.

• In this chapter we look at two kinds of memory manager:

• The newer scheme reuses some parts of the simpler scheme.
• First we look at the simpler approach.
• Look at memory allocation and the fragmentation problem.
• Introduce the MMU hardware.
• Look at the more complex approach.

• How do we run multiple programs?
• Timesharing is easy (we look at swapping later).
• Putting both programs in memory at the same time is harder.
• If we look inside the code for a typical program.
• There is an asymmetry between code and data.
• When we access data the address is normally calculated.
• When we access code the address is normally constant.
• Moving the data to new addresses is easier.
• Just insert some extra calculation.
• Moving the code to new addresses is harder...

• The asymmetry in the instruction set makes it harder to move the code.
• Each jump target is a hardcoded number inside the instruction.
• If we try to put the code into new addresses...
• It still uses the originals whenever it jumps.
• Left: two programs using addresses 0-16K
• Right: copy white program higher addresses.
• These two programs would not last for long before crashing.
• Digging the addresses out of the instruction encoding is surprisingly hard.
• Do something else instead.

• Think of an address space as a map (or "dictionary") data-type.
• The key-space can be sparse, e.g. domain names.
• The value-space is a dense range, e.g. physical addresses.
• This is a level of indirection inbetween the program and the machine.

• Each program can have its own private address range.
• These can overlap, e.g. 0x1000 can be used in program A and B.
• At runtime: map the private addresses onto the global physical range.

• Simple implementation of the concept:
• base register holds an offset into memory.
• limit register hold the size of memory.
• Very simple dynamic scheme inside the CPU.
• Every instruction that is executed:
• Take any address that is used: x.
• If x>=limit generate an error.
• x'=x+base add the offset.
• Use x' as the physical address.
• Same example as earlier:
• The address 28 is still hardcoded.
• CPU jumps to address 16384+28=16412.

• The Base and Limit scheme allows multiple processes.
• But the memory is partitioned: fixed size causes wasted space.
• Each partition must be as big as the program might need.
• During the execution of one program: no other memory is used.
• Swapping moves programs out of memory when not running.
• Example lifecyle of process (only in memory when running).

• a) Process A loaded.
• b) B is loaded while A runs.
• c) A is written to disk "swapped out"
• d) Memory for A is freed.
• g) Next execution of A - different address.

• If the set of processes is scheduled forever: ABCDABCD...
• Allocation and free-ing is always in the same order.
• Always one big hole looping through the system. Life is good.

• Problem: if processes exit in a different order a new hole appears.
• e.g in diagram c) if processes A and C both exit before B.
• Fragmentation: multiple holes with different sizes.
• The free space is split into fragments throughout memory.
• Compaction is one solution: move everything down.
• Much like defragging a disk: very slow process.
• Problem: base+limit is a single consecutive range per process.

• There is a similar problem if a process asks for more memory.
• If there is no adjacent hole: need to rearrange memory - slow.
• Avoid problem by leaving some extra space.
• The unused space does not need to be loaded/saved - just counted.
• When swapping a process in, if the slack is too small can increase it cheaply (no rearranging).
• Generally we leave the slack for both the heap and the stack to grow into.

• System doesn't track free memory in bytes: too costly.
• Chooses an allocation unit size e.g. 4KB, tracks units used/free.
• Example: 5 processes occupying units, three holes (free memory).
• Two approaches for representing this allocation state:
• Array of bits (bitmap) - one per unit.
• Linked list of records.

• Allocator needs to answer calls: alloc(n) with a large enough hole.
• Bitmaps are always a fixed size: fixed size is just \(\frac{memory}{unit}\)
• Finding free holes big enough to allocate into - requires a scan.
• Linked list holds the same information in a different form.
• Different trade-offs for fast/slow operations.
• Variable length structure: implementation is more complex.

• When processes and holes are kept in a list it is easy to find neighbours.
• There are four possible cases for the neighbouring segments.

• In a) the process is replaced by a new hole.
• In b) / c) the new space extends a neighbouring hole.
• In d) two existing holes are extended / merged into one larger hole.
• When the machine is busy, case a) is statistically more likely.
• This increases fragmentation: lots of uniquely sized holes.
• e.g. 20 units free: 1+3+1+7+4+4, cannot allocate 8-units.

• In order to allocate a segment of memory, the manager must find a large enough hole.
• When the representation is a linked list this requires scanning the list to search.
• The search can performed several ways.
• The examples on the right show an allocation of 18 units.
• Find the first hole large enough.
• Find the next hole large enough (remember where the last scan finished).
• Find the best hole that wastes the least space (same as first in the example).
• Find the worst hole that wastes the most space.

• Each algorithm encodes assumptions:
• First fit - minimise the amount of seaching to do.
• Next fit - don't repeat the search already done.
• Best fit - minimise the wasted space.
• Worst fit - leave the most useful hole behind.

• These assumptions depend on a complex tradeoff between memory and time efficiency for the (unknown) applications: simulate it.

	A comparison of next-fit, first-fit, and best-fit
	Carter Bays. CACM, Vol 20 Issue 3, March 1977
	http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=359453

• The memory manager uses a block-size for allocations, e.g. 16kb in the example.
• Older process (C) allocated at address 64kb.
• A hole existed between 0-63kb.
• Process A is to be allocated 40kb.
• Round up to the block size: 3 blocks = 48kb.
• 8kb is lost from rounding, inside a block.
• This is called internal fragmentation.
• 64kb hole filled with 3 blocks, and a hole of 1 block.
• The 16kb hole is a full block, but can only use for a small process.
• This is called external fragmentation.

• Internal and External Fragmentation occur in many systems.
• Any time we need to cut a divisible resource into variable-sized pieces.
• File-systems, Memory Partitions, Run-time memory-management (e.g. new/delete in the standard C++ library).
• Internal Fragmentation can be reduced by using a smaller block-size.
• But this increases External Fragmentation.
• Finer granulatity in allocation sizes means more uniquely sized holes.
• External Fragmentation is a disaster: compaction means "stop the world".
• Internal Fragmentation is wasteful, but not catastrophic.
• In finding a way to avoid external fragmentation we can tolerate reasonably low internal fragmentation.
• We can ask: can we approximate optimal layout by a constant factor?

• If we round allocations up to the nearest power of two...
• ...the internal fragmentation can be no more than 50%.
• There are fewer powers of two, than arbitrary request sizes.
• Trade some internal fragmentation for higher performance.
• Start with a single piece of memory.
• Cut it into half until we reach the rounded-up size.
• When request can be satisfied with an existing piece it is fast.
• When memory is freed - only need to check if it can coalesce with its buddy.

• When blocks are split it is always into two pieces.
• We can draw the state of the allocation in a tree.
• The root is the entire memory range.
• If it is split we colour the node, and add two children.
• Unsplit nodes point directly to the region of memory.
• Each level of the tree contains nodes of the same size.
• Nodes can be linked into lists (the blue lines).
• Node can be reached either via tree (for free / coalesce), or via list for allocation.
• No scanning is necessary for allocation.
• Only splitting blocks requires work: very fast.

• If we allocate many small regions, each will waste some memory (internal fragmentation).
• Worst case in the example: \(2^n+1\)
• If they are all the same size we can manage better than this.
• e.g. one kind of common kernel data-structure.
• A more efficient approach is to insert an extra layer before the memory allocation (slab).
• The slab manages a pool (array) of fixed size elements.
• Zero internal fragmentation in the slab.
• Allocation/Freeing items in the slab is very fast (never any splitting).

• A 4kb block of physical memory (the global address space) is called a page frame.
• Slabs and user data sit inside allocations from this page-allocater.
• Doubly-linked lists for powers of two block sizes (free blocks).
• Array of pointers into free lists.
• Lower addresses (16MB) have special rules (ZONE_DMA).
• The rest is ZONE_NORMAL.
• Data-structures used inside the kernel are stored in slabs called object caches.
• Provides fast memory management for the kernel.

• Not of the code in program runs at the same time.
• We can take advantage of this to write bigger programs than there is available memory.
• Idea: only load in the parts of the program that are currently needed.
• Swap independent parts into the same region of memory.
• Similar to swapping, but small pieces of programs code, not whole memory.
• Writing good overlay descriptions is tedious and difficult.
• Try to minimise the number of swaps to improve performance.
• Doing this automatically would be better.

• We've now pushed the abstraction provided by dynamic partitions as far as it can go.
• External fragmentation is an issue that cannot be solved completely with partitions.
• Instead we use a technique called Virtual Memory.
• There are two changes to the memory abstraction that we have seen so far.
• The base+limit registers are replaced with a separate mapping from each page to a frame.
• Swapping is performed on each page, rather than an entire process memory space.
• To make this work we need a new piece of hardware in the machine...

• The Memory Management Unit (MMU) sits between the processor and the memory bus.
• Physically it is often within the same package.
• Logically it is a separate unit, independent from the processor.

• The processor uses a separate address space to the memory.
• The processor address space contains virtual addresses.
• The memory address space contains physical addresses.
• Addresses are split into two parts: high=page, low=offset.
• The MMU implements a mapping between virtual and physical page.

• Memory knows nothing of virtual addresses.
• It simply performs read/write operations on physical addresses.
• The program executing on the CPU does not need to know about physical addresses at all.
• It operates entirely within the virtual address space.
• The MMU is a layer of indirection inbetween to isolate these two components from one another.
• The O/S programs the MMU with the details of the mapping.
• Idea: it's a dictionary mapping on addresses.

• A program executes movl $3, %eax; movl (%eax), %ebx.
• The virtual address 3 is sent to the MMU as a read request.
• The MMU sees this is page 0 (drop the low 12 bits).
• Page 0 maps onto frame 2.
• The offset within the page is 3: target address is 8192+3=8195.
• Another program tries movl $32780, %eax; movl (%eax), %ebx.
• This is page 8 offset 12 (\(2^{15}=32678\).
• The page is unmapped in the MMU.
• It signals the CPU there is an error...

• The book delays page-fault details until § 3.6.2 (lecture 8).
• But logically page faults are part of the execution of the MMU.
• So we have a brief sketch of how they work now.
• There is a hardware interrupt called the page fault.
• This is trapped by the OS, which swaps pages in memory/disk.
• The instruction is then repeated and succeeds.

• Direct use of memory imposes problems.
• A single dense address range is difficult to manage.
• Programs need to be relocated.
• External fragmentation is a difficult issue.
• Virtual Memory solves this issue.
• The cost is extra hardware to support a new abstraction.
• We look at the details of Virtual Memory in the next lecture.