Deadlocks and Memory Management in OS
Deadlocks and Memory Management in OS
SEMESTER: 3
MODULE: 3
NUMBER OF HOURS: 10
CONTENTS:
❖ Deadlocks:
∙ Deadlocks;
∙ System model;
∙ Deadlock characterization;
∙ Deadlock prevention;
∙ Deadlock avoidance;
❖ Memory Management:
∙ Swapping;
∙ Paging;
∙ Segmentation.
❖ Question Bank:
❖ WEB RESOURCES:
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MODULE 3
DEADLOCKS
A process requests resources, if the resources are not available at that time, the process enters a
waiting state. Sometimes, a waiting process is never again able to change state, because the
resources it has requested are held by other waiting processes. This situation is called a Deadlock.
SYSTEM MODEL
Under the normal mode of operation, a process may utilize a resource in only the following
sequence:
1. Request: The process requests the resource. If the request cannot be granted
immediately, then the requesting process must wait until it can acquire the resource. 2.
Use: The process can operate on the resource.
3. Release: The process releases the resource.
A set of processes is in a deadlocked state when every process in the set is waiting for an event that
can be caused only by another process in the set. The events with which we are mainly concerned
here are resource acquisition and release. The resources may be either physical resources or logical
resources
To illustrate a deadlocked state, consider a system with three CD RW drives. Suppose each of
three processes holds one of these CD RW drives. If each process now requests another drive, the
three processes will be in a deadlocked state.
Each is waiting for the event "CD RW is released," which can be caused only by one of the other
waiting processes. This example illustrates a deadlock involving the same resource type.
Deadlocks may also involve different resource types. For example, consider a system with one
printer and one DVD drive. Suppose that process Pi is holding the DVD and process P j is holding
the printer. If Pi requests the printer and Pj requests the DVD drive, a deadlock occurs.
DEADLOCK CHARACTERIZATION
Necessary Conditions
A deadlock situation can arise if the following four conditions hold simultaneously in a system:
1. Mutual exclusion: At least one resource must be held in a non-sharable mode, that is, only
one process at a time can use the resource. If another process requests that resource, the
requesting process must be delayed until the resource has been released.
2. Hold and wait: A process must be holding at least one resource and waiting to acquire
additional resources that are currently being held by other processes.
3. No preemption: Resources cannot be preempted; that is, a resource can be released only
voluntarily by the process holding it, after that process has completed its task.
4. Circular wait: A set {P0, Pl, ... , Pn} of waiting processes must exist such that P o is waiting
for a resource held by P1, P1 is waiting for a resource held by P2, ... , Pn-1 is waiting for a
resource held by Pn and Pn is waiting for a resource held by Po.
Resource-Allocation Graph
The graph consists of a set of vertices V and a set of edges E. The set of vertices V is partitioned
into two different types of nodes:
∙ P = {P1, P2, ...,Pn}, the set consisting of all the active processes in the system. ∙
R = {R1, R2, ..., Rm} the set consisting of all resource types in the system.
A directed edge from process P i to resource type Rj is denoted by Pi → Rj it signifies that process Pi
has requested an instance of resource type Rj and is currently waiting for that resource.
A directed edge from resource type Rj to process Pi is denoted by Rj → Pi it signifies that an instance
of resource type Rj has been allocated to process Pi.
∙ A directed edge Pi → Rj is called a Request Edge.
Pictorially each process Pi as a circle and each resource type R j as a rectangle. Since resource type
Rj may have more than one instance, each instance is represented as a dot within the rectangle.
A request edge points to only the rectangle Rj, whereas an assignment edge must also designate one
of the dots in the rectangle.
When process Pi requests an instance of resource type R j, a request edge is inserted in the resource-
allocation graph. When this request can be fulfilled, the request edge is instantaneously transformed
to an assignment edge. When the process no longer needs access to the resource, it releases the
resource; as a result, the assignment edge is deleted.
Resource instances:
∙ One instance of resource type R1
Process states:
∙ Process P1 is holding an instance of resource type R2 and is waiting for an instance of
resource type R1.
∙ Process P2 is holding an instance of R1 and an instance of R2 and is waiting for an
instance of R3.
∙ Process P3 is holding an instance of R3.
∙ If each resource type has exactly one instance, then a cycle implies that a deadlock has
occurred. If the cycle involves only a set of resource types, each of which has only a
single instance, then a deadlock has occurred. Each process involved in the cycle is
deadlocked.
∙ If each resource type has several instances, then a cycle does not necessarily imply that a
deadlock has occurred. In this case, a cycle in the graph is a necessary but not a sufficient
condition for the existence of deadlock.
To illustrate this concept, the resource-allocation graph depicted in below figure: Suppose that
process P3 requests an instance of resource type R2. Since no resource instance is currently
available, a request edge P3 → R2 is added to the graph. At this point, two minimal cycles exist in
the system:
1. P1 →R1 → P2 → R3 → P3 → R2→P1
2. P2 →R3 → P3 → R2 → P2
Processes P1, P2, and P3 are deadlocked. Process P2 is waiting for the resource R3, which is held
by process P3. Process P3 is waiting for either process P1 or process P2 to release resource R2. In
addition, process P1 is waiting for process P2 to release resource R1.
Consider the resource-allocation graph in below Figure. In this example also have a cycle:
P1→R1→P3→R2→P1
However, there is no deadlock. Observe that process P4 may release its instance of resource
type R2. That resource can then be allocated to P3, breaking the cycle.
To ensure that deadlocks never occur, the system can use either deadlock prevention or a deadlock-
avoidance scheme.
Deadlock prevention provides a set of methods for ensuring that at least one of the necessary
conditions cannot hold. These methods prevent deadlocks by constraining how requests for
resources can be made.
Deadlock-avoidance requires that the operating system be given in advance additional information
concerning which resources a process will request and use during its lifetime. With this additional
knowledge, it can decide for each request whether or not the process should wait. To decide
whether the current request can be satisfied or must be delayed, the system must consider the
resources currently available, the resources currently allocated to each process, and the future
requests and releases of each process
If a system does not employ either a deadlock-prevention or a deadlock avoidance algorithm, then a
deadlock situation may arise. In this environment, the system can provide an algorithm that
examines the state of the system to determine whether a deadlock has occurred and an algorithm to
recover from the deadlock.
In the absence of algorithms to detect and recover from deadlocks, then the system is in a deadlock
state yet has no way of recognizing what has happened. In this case, the undetected deadlock will
result in deterioration of the system's performance, because resources are being held by processes
that cannot run and because more and more processes, as they make requests for resources, will
enter a deadlocked state. Eventually, the system will stop functioning and will need to be restarted
manually.
DEADLOACK PREVENTION
Deadlock can be prevented by ensuring that at least one of the four necessary conditions cannot
hold.
Mutual Exclusion
∙ The mutual-exclusion condition must hold for non-sharable resources. Sharable resources, do
not require mutually exclusive access and thus cannot be involved in a deadlock.
∙ Ex: Read-only files are example of a sharable resource. If several processes attempt to open a
read-only file at the same time, they can be granted simultaneous access to the file. A
process never needs to wait for a sharable resource.
∙ Deadlocks cannot prevent by denying the mutual-exclusion condition, because some
resources are intrinsically non-sharable.
Ex:
∙ Consider a process that copies data from a DVD drive to a file on disk, sorts the file, and then
prints the results to a printer. If all resources must be requested at the beginning of the
process, then the process must initially request the DVD drive, disk file, and printer. It will
hold the printer for its entire execution, even though it needs the printer only at the end.
∙ The second method allows the process to request initially only the DVD drive and disk file. It
copies from the DVD drive to the disk and then releases both the DVD drive and the disk
file. The process must then again request the disk file and the printer. After copying the disk
file to the printer, it releases these two resources and terminates.
No Preemption
The third necessary condition for deadlocks is that there be no preemption of resources that have
already been allocated.
To ensure that this condition does not hold, the following protocols can be used: ∙ If a process is
holding some resources and requests another resource that cannot be immediately allocated to
it, then all resources the process is currently holding are preempted.
∙ The preempted resources are added to the list of resources for which the process is waiting.
The process will be restarted only when it can regain its old resources, as well as the new
ones that it is requesting.
If a process requests some resources, first check whether they are available. If they are, allocate
them.
If they are not available, check whether they are allocated to some other process that is waiting for
additional resources. If so, preempt the desired resources from the waiting process and allocate
them to the requesting process.
If the resources are neither available nor held by a waiting process, the requesting process must
wait. While it is waiting, some of its resources may be preempted, but only if another process
requests them.
A process can be restarted only when it is allocated the new resources it is requesting and recovers
any resources that were preempted while it was waiting.
Circular Wait
One way to ensure that this condition never holds is to impose a total ordering of all resource types
and to require that each process requests resources in an increasing order of enumeration.
To illustrate, let R = {R1, R2, ... , Rm} be the set of resource types. Assign a unique integer number
to each resource type, which allows to compare two resources and to determine whether one
precedes another in ordering. Formally, it defined as a one-to-one function F: R ->N, where N is the
set of natural numbers.
Example: if the set of resource types R includes tape drives, disk drives, and printers, then the
function F might be defined as follows:
F (tape drive) = 1
F (disk drive) = 5
F (printer) = 12
Now consider the following protocol to prevent deadlocks. Each process can request resources only
in an increasing order of enumeration. That is, a process can initially request any number of
instances of a resource type -Ri. After that, the process can request instances of resource type R j if
and only if F(Rj) > F(Ri).
DEADLOCK AVOIDANCE
Safe State
∙ Safe state: A state is safe if the system can allocate resources to each process (up to its
maximum) in some order and still avoid a deadlock. A system is in a safe state only if there
exists a safe sequence.
∙ Safe sequence: A sequence of processes <P1, P2, ... , Pn> is a safe sequence for the current
allocation state if, for each Pi, the resource requests that Pi can still make can be satisfied by
the currently available resources plus the resources held by all Pj, with j <i.
In this situation, if the resources that Pi needs are not immediately available, then Pi can wait until
all Pj have finished. When they have finished, Pi can obtain all of its needed resources, complete its
designated task, return its allocated resources, and terminate. When Pi terminates, Pi+1 can obtain
its needed resources, and so on. If no such sequence exists, then the system state is said to be
unsafe.
A safe state is not a deadlocked state. Conversely, a deadlocked state is an unsafe state. Not all
unsafe states are deadlocks as shown in figure. An unsafe state may lead to a deadlock. As long as
the state is safe, the operating system can avoid unsafe states
Resource-Allocation-Graph Algorithm
∙ If a resource-allocation system has only one instance of each resource type, then a variant of
the resource-allocation graph is used for deadlock avoidance. ∙ In addition to the request and
assignment edges, a new type of edge is introduced, called a claim edge.
∙ A claim edge Pi ->Rj indicates that process Pi may request resource Rj at some time in the
future. This edge resembles a request edge in direction but is represented in the graph by a
dashed line.
∙ When process Pi requests resource Rj, the claim edge Pi ->Rj is converted to a request edge.
When a resource Rj is released by Pi the assignment edge Rj->Pi is reconverted to a claim
edge Pi->Rj.
Note that the resources must be claimed a priori in the system. That is, before process Pi starts
executing, all its claim edges must already appear in the resource-allocation graph. We can relax
this condition by allowing a claim edge Pi ->Rj to be added to the graph only if all the edges
associated with process Pi are claim edges.
Now suppose that process Pi requests resource Rj. The request can be granted only if
converting the request edge Pi ->Rj to an assignment edge Rj->Pi does not result in the
formation of a cycle in the resource-allocation graph.
There is need to check for safety by using a cycle-detection algorithm. An algorithm for detecting a
cycle in this graph requires an order of n 2 operations, where n is the number of processes in the
system.
∙ If no cycle exists, then the allocation of the resource will leave the system in a safe state. ∙ If
a cycle is found, then the allocation will put the system in an unsafe state. In that case, process
Pi will have to wait for its requests to be satisfied.
To illustrate this algorithm, consider the resource-allocation graph as shown above. Suppose that
P2 requests R2. Although R2 is currently free, we cannot allocate it to P2, since this action will
create a cycle in the graph.
A cycle, indicates that the system is in an unsafe state. If P1 requests R2, and P2 requests R1, then
a deadlock will occur.
Banker's Algorithm
The Banker’s algorithm is applicable to a resource allocation system with multiple instances of
each resource type.
∙ When a new process enters the system, it must declare the maximum number of instances of
each resource type that it may need. This number may not exceed the total number of
resources in the system.
∙ When a user requests a set of resources, the system must determine whether the allocation of
these resources will leave the system in a safe state. If it will, the resources are allocated;
otherwise, the process must wait until some other process releases enough resources.
To implement the banker's algorithm the following data structures are used.
Available: A vector of length m indicates the number of available resources of each type. If
available [j] = k, there are k instances of resource type Rj available.
Max: An n x m matrix defines the maximum demand of each process. If Max [i,j] = k, then
process Pi may request at most k instances of resource type Rj
Allocation: An n x m matrix defines the number of resources of each type currently allocated to
each process. If Allocation[i,j] = k then Pi is currently allocated k instances of Rj
Need: An n x m matrix indicates the remaining resource need of each process. If Need[i,j] = k,
then Pi may need k more instances of Rj to complete its task.
Safety Algorithm
The algorithm for finding out whether or not a system is in a safe state. This algorithm can be
described as follows:
4. If Finish [i] == true for all i, then the system is in a safe state
This algorithm may require an order of m x n2 operations to determine whether a state is safe.
2. If Requesti≤Available, go to step 3. Otherwise Pi must wait, since resources are not available
3. Have the system pretend to allocate requested resources to Pi by modifying the state as
follows:
Available = Available – Request;
Allocationi= Allocationi + Requesti;
Needi=Needi – Requesti;
Example
Consider a system with five processes Po through P4 and three resource types A, B, and C. Resource
type A has ten instances, resource type B has five instances, and resource type C has seven
instances. Suppose that, at time T0the following snapshot of the system has been taken:
Suppose now that process P1 requests one additional instance of resource type A and two
instances of resource type C, so Request1 = (1,0,2). Decide whether this request can be
immediately granted.
Then pretend that this request has been fulfilled, and the following new state is arrived.
Executing safety algorithm shows that sequence <P1, P3, P4, P0, P2> satisfies safety
requirement.
DEADLOCK DETECTION
If a system does not employ either a deadlock-prevention or a deadlock avoidance algorithm, then
a deadlock situation may occur. In this environment, the system may provide: ∙ An algorithm that
examines the state of the system to determine whether a deadlock has occurred
∙ An algorithm to recover from the deadlock
∙ If all resources have only a single instance, then define a deadlock detection algorithm that
uses a variant of the resource-allocation graph, called a wait-for graph. ∙ This graph is obtained
from the resource-allocation graph by removing the resource nodes and collapsing the
appropriate edges.
∙ An edge from Pi to Pj in a wait-for graph implies that process Pi is waiting for process Pj to release
a resource that Pi needs. An edge Pi → Pj exists in a wait-for graph if and only if the
corresponding resource allocation graph contains two edges Pi →Rq and Rq→Pi for some
resource Rq.
Example: In below Figure, a resource-allocation graph and the corresponding wait-for graph is
presented.
∙ A deadlock exists in the system if and only if the wait-for graph contains a cycle. To
detect deadlocks, the system needs to maintain the wait-for graph and periodically
invoke an algorithm that searches for a cycle in the graph.
∙ An algorithm to detect a cycle in a graph requires an order of n2 operations, where n is the
number of vertices in the graph.
A deadlock detection algorithm that is applicable to several instances of a resource type. The
algorithm employs several time-varying data structures that are similar to those used in the
banker's algorithm.
Algorithm:
4. If Finish[i] == false, for some i, 1 ≤i≤n, then the system is in deadlock state. Moreover, if
Finish[i] == false, then Pi is deadlocked
Algorithm requires an order of O(m x n2) operations to detect whether the system is in
deadlocked state
Consider a system with five processes Po through P4 and three resource types A, B, and C.
Resource type A has seven instances, resource type B has two instances, and resource type C
has six instances. Suppose that, at time T0, the following resource-allocation state:
Karthikeyan S M, Asst. Professor, Dept. of. CSE, SVIT, Bengaluru
16
Operating Systems BCS303
After executing the algorithm, Sequence <P0, P2, P3, P1, P4> will result in Finish[i] = true for all
i
Suppose now that process P2 makes one additional request for an instance of type C. The
Request matrix is modified as follows:
The system is now deadlocked. Although we can reclaim the resources held by process Po, the
number of available resources is not sufficient to fulfill the requests of the other processes. Thus,
a deadlock exists, consisting of processes P1, P2, P3, and P4.
Detection-Algorithm Usage
If deadlocks occur frequently, then the detection algorithm should be invoked frequently.
Resources allocated to deadlocked processes will be idle until the deadlock can be broken.
If detection algorithm is invoked arbitrarily, there may be many cycles in the resource graph and so
we would not be able to tell which of the many deadlocked processes “caused” the deadlock.
The system recovers from the deadlock automatically. There are two options for breaking a
deadlock one is simply to abort one or more processes to break the circular wait. The other is to
preempt some resources from one or more of the deadlocked processes.
Process Termination
To eliminate deadlocks by aborting a process, use one of two methods. In both methods, the
system reclaims all resources allocated to the terminated processes.
1. Abort all deadlocked processes: This method clearly will break the deadlock cycle, but at
great expense; the deadlocked processes may have computed for a long time, and the results
of these partial computations must be discarded and probably will have to be recomputed
later.
2. Abort one process at a time until the deadlock cycle is eliminated: This method incurs
considerable overhead, since after each process is aborted, a deadlock-detection algorithm
must be invoked to determine whether any processes are still deadlocked.
If the partial termination method is used, then we must determine which deadlocked process (or
processes) should be terminated. Many factors may affect which process is chosen, including:
Resource Preemption
To eliminate deadlocks using resource preemption, we successively preempt some resources from
processes and give these resources to other processes until the deadlock cycle is broken. If
preemption is required to deal with deadlocks, then three issues need to be addressed:
1. Selecting a victim. Which resources and which processes are to be preempted? As in process
termination, we must determine the order of preemption to minimize cost. Cost factors may
include such parameters as the number of resources a deadlocked process is holding and the
amount of time the process has thus far consumed during its execution.
2. Rollback. If we preempt a resource from a process, what should be done with that process?
Clearly, it cannot continue with its normal execution; it is missing some needed resource.
We must roll back the process to some safe state and restart it from that state. Since it is
difficult to determine what a safe state is, the simplest solution is a total rollback: abort the
process and then restart it.
3. Starvation. How do we ensure that starvation will not occur? That is, how can we guarantee
that resources will not always be preempted from the same process?
Karthikeyan S M, Asst. Professor, Dept. of. CSE, SVIT, Bengaluru
19
Operating Systems BCS303
MEMORY MANAGEMENT
∙ Every program to be executed has to be executed must be in memory. The instruction must
be fetched from memory before it is executed.
∙ In multi-tasking OS memory management is complex, because as processes are swapped in
and out of the CPU, their code and data must be swapped in and out of memory.
Basic Hardware
∙ Main memory, cache and CPU registers in the processors are the only storage spaces that
CPU can access directly.
∙ The program and data must be bought into the memory from the disk, for the process to run.
Each process has a separate memory space and must access only this range of legal
addresses. Protection of memory is required to ensure correct operation. This prevention is
provided by hardware implementation.
∙ Two registers are used - a base register and a limit register. The base register holds the
smallest legal physical memory address; the limit register specifies the size of the range. ∙ For
example, The base register holds the smallest legal physical memory address; 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 through 420940
(inclusive).
∙ The base and limit registers can be loaded only by the operating system, which uses a special
privileged instruction. Since privileged instructions can be executed only in kernel mode
only the operating system can load the base and limit registers.
Karthikeyan S M, Asst. Professor, Dept. of. CSE, SVIT, Bengaluru
20
Operating Systems BCS303
Address Binding
∙ User programs typically refer to memory addresses with symbolic names. These symbolic
names must be mapped or bound to physical memory addresses.
∙ Address binding of instructions to memory-addresses can happen at 3 different stages.
1. Compile Time - If it is known at compile time where a program will reside in physical
memory, then absolute code can be generated by the compiler, containing actual physical
addresses. However, if the load address changes at some later time, then the program will
have to be recompiled.
2. Load Time - If the location at which a program will be loaded is not known at compile time,
then the compiler must generate relocatable code, which references addresses relative to the
start of the program. If that starting address changes, then the program must be reloaded but
not recompiled.
3. Execution Time - If a program can be moved around in memory during the course of its
execution, then binding must be delayed until execution time.
Karthikeyan S M, Asst. Professor, Dept. of. CSE, SVIT, Bengaluru
21
Operating Systems BCS303
∙ The address generated by the CPU is a logical address, whereas the memory address where
programs are actually stored is a physical address.
∙ The set of all logical addresses used by a program composes the logical address space, and
the set of all corresponding physical addresses composes the physical address space. ∙ The run
time mapping of logical to physical addresses is handled by the memory management unit
(MMU).
∙ One of the simplest is a modification of the base-register scheme.
Dynamic Loading
∙ This can be used to obtain better memory-space utilization.
Advantages:
1. An unused routine is never loaded.
2. Useful when large amounts of code are needed to handle infrequently occurring cases. 3.
Although the total program-size may be large, the portion that is used (and hence loaded) may
be much smaller.
4. Does not require special support from the OS.
∙ With static linking library modules get fully included in executable modules, wasting both
disk space and main memory usage, because every program that included a certain routine
from the library would have to have their own copy of that routine linked into their
executable code.
∙ With dynamic linking, however, only a stub is linked into the executable module, containing
references to the actual library module linked in at run time.
∙ The stub is a small piece of code used to locate the appropriate memory-resident
library-routine.
∙ This method saves disk space, because the library routines do not need to be fully
included in the executable modules, only the stubs.
∙ An added benefit of dynamically linked libraries (DLLs, also known as shared
libraries or shared objects on UNIX systems) involves easy upgrades and updates.
Shared libraries
∙ A library may be replaced by a new version, and all programs that reference the library will
automatically use the new one.
∙ Version info. is included in both program & library so that programs won't accidentally
execute incompatible versions.
Swapping
∙ If there is not enough memory available to keep all running processes in memory at the same
time, then some processes that are not currently using the CPU may have their memory
swapped out to a fast local disk called the backing store.
∙ Swapping is the process of moving a process from memory to backing store and moving
another process from backing store to memory. Swapping is a very slow process compared
to other operations.
∙ A variant of swapping policy is used for priority-based scheduling algorithms. If a higher-
priority process arrives and wants service, the memory manager can swap out the lower-
priority process and then load and execute the higher-priority process. When the higher-
priority process finishes, the lower-priority process can be swapped back in and continued.
This variant of swapping is called roll out, roll in.
∙ If binding is done at execution-time, then a process can be swapped into a different memory-
space, because the physical-addresses are computed during execution-time.
Major part of swap-time is transfer-time; i.e. total transfer-time is directly proportional to the
amount of memory swapped.
Disadvantages:
1. Context-switch time is fairly high.
2. If we want to swap a process, we must be sure that it is completely idle.
Two solutions:
i) Never swap a process with pending I/O.
ii) Execute I/O operations only into OS buffers.
Example:
Assume that the user process is 10 MB in size and the backing store is a standard hard disk with a
transfer rate of 40 MB per second.
The actual transfer of the 10-MB process to or from main memory takes
10000 KB/40000 KB per second = 1/4 second
= 250 milliseconds.
Assuming that no head seeks are necessary, and assuming an average latency of 8 milliseconds, the
swap time is 258 milliseconds. Since we must both swap out and swap in, the total swap time is
about 516 milliseconds.
∙ The main memory must accommodate both the operating system and the various user
processes. Therefore we need to allocate the parts of the main memory in the most efficient
way possible.
∙ Memory is usually divided into 2 partitions: One for the resident OS. One for the user
processes.
∙ Each process is contained in a single contiguous section of memory.
∙ The MMU maps the logical-address dynamically by adding the value in the relocation
register. This mapped-address is sent to memory
∙ When the CPU scheduler selects a process for execution, the dispatcher loads the
relocation and limit-registers with the correct values.
∙ Because every address generated by the CPU is checked against these registers, we can
protect the OS from the running-process.
∙ The relocation-register scheme provides an effective way to allow the OS size to change
dynamically.
∙ Transient OS code: Code that comes & goes as needed to save memory-space and overhead
for unnecessary swapping.
2. Memory Allocation
1. Fixed-sized Partitioning
∙ The memory is divided into fixed-sized partitions.
Variable-sized Partitioning
∙ The OS keeps a table indicating which parts of memory are available and which parts are
occupied.
∙ A hole is a block of available memory. Normally, memory contains a set of holes of various
sizes.
∙ Initially, all memory is available for user-processes and considered one large hole. ∙ When a
process arrives, the process is allocated memory from a large hole. ∙ If we find the hole, we
allocate only as much memory as is needed and keep the remaining memory available to satisfy
future requests.
Three strategies used to select a free hole from the set of available holes:
1. First Fit: Allocate the first hole that is big enough. Searching can start either at the beginning
of the set of holes or at the location where the previous first-fit search ended.
2. Best Fit: Allocate the smallest hole that is big enough. We must search the entire list, unless
the list is ordered by size. This strategy produces the smallest leftover hole.
3. Worst Fit: Allocate the largest hole. Again, we must search the entire list, unless it is sorted
by size. This strategy produces the largest leftover hole.
First-fit and best fit are better than worst fit in terms of decreasing time and storage utilization.
3. Fragmentation
∙ The general approach is to break the physical-memory into fixed-sized blocks and
allocate memory in units based on block size.
∙ The allocated-memory to a process may be slightly larger than the requested-memory. ∙
The difference between requested-memory and allocated-memory is called internal
fragmentation i.e. Unused memory that is internal to a partition.
2. External Fragmentation
∙ External fragmentation occurs when there is enough total memory-space to satisfy a request
but the available-spaces are not contiguous. (i.e. storage is fragmented into a large number of
small holes).
∙ Both the first-fit and best-fit strategies for memory-allocation suffer from external
fragmentation.
∙ Statistical analysis of first-fit reveals that given N allocated blocks, another 0.5 N blocks will
be lost to fragmentation. This property is known as the 50-percent rule.
Paging
∙ This permits the physical-address space of a process to be non-contiguous. ∙ This also solves
the considerable problem of fitting memory-chunks of varying sizes onto the backing-store.
∙ Traditionally: Support for paging has been handled by hardware.
∙ The basic method for implementing paging involves breaking physical memory into fixed-
sized blocks called frames and breaking logical memory into blocks of the same size called
pages.
∙ When a process is to be executed, its pages are loaded into any available memory frames
from the backing store.
∙ The backing store is divided into fixed-sized blocks that are of the same size as the memory
frames.
∙ The page size (like the frame size) is defined by the hardware.
∙ The size of a page is typically a power of 2, varying between 512 bytes and 16 MB per page,
depending on the computer architecture.
∙ The selection of a power of 2 as a page size makes the translation of a logical address into a
page number and page offset.
∙ If the size of logical address space is 2m and a page size is 2naddressing units (bytes or words),
then the high-order m – n bits of a logical address designate the page number, and the n low-
order bits designate the page offset.
m -n n
∙ When a process requests memory (e.g. when its code is loaded in from disk), free frames are
allocated from a free-frame list, and inserted into that process's page table. ∙ Processes are
blocked from accessing anyone else's memory because all of their memory requests are mapped
through their page table. There is no way for them to generate an address that maps into any
other process's memory space.
∙ The operating system must keep track of each individual process's page table, updating it
whenever the process's pages get moved in and out of memory, and applying the correct
page table when processing system calls for a particular process. This all increases the
overhead involved when swapping processes in and out of the CPU.
Karthikeyan S M, Asst. Professor, Dept. of. CSE, SVIT, Bengaluru
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Operating Systems BCS303
Figure: Free frames (a) before allocation and (b) after allocation.
Hardware Support
∙ A special, small, fast lookup hardware cache, called a translation look-aside buffer (TLB).
∙ Each entry in the TLB consists of two parts: a key (or tag) and a value. ∙ When the
associative memory is presented with an item, the item is compared with all keys
simultaneously. If the item is found, the corresponding value field is returned. The search is
fast; the hardware, however, is expensive. Typically, the number of entries in a TLB is small,
often numbering between 64 and 1,024.
∙ The TLB contains only a few of the page-table entries.
Working:
∙ When a logical-address is generated by the CPU, its page-number is presented to the TLB.
∙ If the page-number is found (TLB hit), its frame-number is immediately available and used to
access memory
∙ If page-number is not in TLB (TLB miss), a memory-reference to page table must be made.
The obtained frame-number can be used to access memory (Figure 1)
Karthikeyan S M, Asst. Professor, Dept. of. CSE, SVIT, Bengaluru
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Operating Systems BCS303
∙ In addition, we add the page-number and frame-number to the TLB, so that they will be
found quickly on the next reference.
∙ If the TLB is already full of entries, the OS must select one for replacement. ∙ Percentage of
times that a particular page-number is found in the TLB is called hit ratio.
∙ Some TLBs store ASID (address-space identifier) in each entry of the TLB that uniquely
identify each process and provide address space protection for that process.
Protection
∙ Every reference to memory goes through the page-table to find the correct frame
number.
∙ Firstly, the physical-address is computed. At the same time, the protection-bit is checked to
verify that no writes are being made to a read-only page.
∙ An attempt to write to a read-only page causes a hardware-trap to the OS (or memory
protection violation).
∙ Valid bit: “valid” indicates that the associated page is in the process’ logical address space,
and is thus a legal page
∙ Invalid bit: “invalid” indicates that the page is not in the process’ logical address space
Shared Pages
∙ Each process has its own copy of registers and data-storage to hold the data for the process's
execution.
∙ The data for 2 different processes will be different.
∙ Only one copy of the editor need be kept in physical-memory (Figure 5.12). ∙ Each user's
page-table maps onto the same physical copy of the editor, but data pages are mapped onto
different frames.
Disadvantage:
Systems that use inverted page-tables have difficulty implementing shared-memory.
1. Hierarchical Paging
∙ Problem: Most computers support a large logical-address space (232 to 264). In these
systems, the page-table itself becomes excessively large.
∙ Solution: Divide the page-table into smaller pieces.
Two Level Paging Algorithm:
∙ The page-table itself is also paged.
∙ This is also known as a forward-mapped page-table because address translation works from
the outer page-table inwards.
∙ where p1 is an index into the outer page table, and p2 is the displacement within the page
of the inner page table
The address-translation method for this architecture is shown in below figure. Because address
translation works from the outer page table inward, this scheme is also known as a forward mapped
page table.
∙ The virtual page-number is compared with the first element in the linked-list. ∙ If there is a
match, the corresponding page-frame (field 2) is used to form the desired physical-address.
∙ If there is no match, subsequent entries in the linked-list are searched for a matching virtual
page-number.
Figure: Hashed page-table
∙ Each entry consists of virtual-address of the page stored in that real memory-location and
information about the process that owns the page.
∙ Each virtual-address consists of a triplet <process-id, page-number, offset>. ∙
Each inverted page-table entry is a pair <process-id, page-number>
Advantage:
1. Decreases memory needed to store each page-table
Disadvantages:
1. Increases amount of time needed to search table when a page reference occurs. 2.
Difficulty implementing shared-memory
Segmentation
∙ The addresses specify both segment-name and offset within the segment. ∙ Normally,
the user-program is compiled, and the compiler automatically constructs segments
reflecting the input program.
∙ For ex: The code, Global variables, The heap, from which memory is allocated, The stacks
used by each thread, The standard C library
QUESTION BANK
DEADLOCKS
1. What are deadlocks? What are its characteristics? Explain the necessary conditions for its
occurrence.
2. Explain the process of recovery from deadlock.
3. Describe RAG:
i) With deadlock
ii) With a cycle but no deadlock
4. What is Resource Allocation Graph (RAG)? Explain how RAG is very useful in describing
deadly embrace (dead lock ) by considering your own example. 5. With the help of a system
model, explain a deadlock and explain the necessary conditions that must hold simultaneously
in a system for a deadlock to occur. 6. Explain how deadlock can be prevented by considering
four necessary conditions cannot hold.
7. Using Banker's algorithm determines whether the system is in a safe state. 8. How is a
system recovered from deadlock? Explain the different methods used to recover from
deadlock.
9. Explain deadlock detection with algorithm and example
10. Define the terms: safe state and safe sequence. Give an algorithm to find whether or not a
system is in a safe state.
MEMORY MANAGEMENT
1. Explain the multistep processing of a user program with a neat block diagram. 2.
Distinguish between internal and external fragmentation.
3. Explain segmentation with an example.
4. Explain with a diagram, how TLB is used to solve the problem of simple paging scheme. 5.
With a supporting paging hardware, explain in detail concept of paging with an example for a
32-byte memory with 4-type pages with a process being 16-bytes. How many bits are reserved
for page number and page offset in the logical address. Suppose the logical address is 5,
calculate the corresponding physical address, after populating memory and page table.
6. What are the draw backs of contiguous memory allocation?
7. Consider a paging system with the page table stored in memory.
i. if a memory reference takes 200 nano seconds, how long does a paged memory
reference take?
ii. if we add associative register and 75 percentage of all page table references are found in
the associative registers, what is the effective memory access time? (Assume that
finding a page table entry in the associative memory/registers takes
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