10. Page Faults in Virtual Memory
This chapter delves into the functioning of virtual memory, specifically focusing on page faults and their management. It discusses the importance of page size in optimizing access time to memory and how page tables facilitate the mapping of virtual addresses to physical addresses. Additionally, the chapter covers various memory management techniques, including associative mapping and page replacement algorithms, to enhance the efficiency of memory access.
Enroll to start learning
You've not yet enrolled in this course. Please enroll for free to listen to audio lessons, classroom podcasts and take practice test.
Sections
Navigate through the learning materials and practice exercises.
What we have learnt
- Virtual memory is managed through page tables which map virtual addresses to physical addresses.
- Page faults occur when a required virtual page is not in physical memory, necessitating fetching from secondary storage.
- The size of pages can significantly impact the efficiency of memory access, with larger pages reducing the frequency of page faults.
Key Concepts
- -- Page Fault
- An event that occurs when a program attempts to access a page that is not currently loaded in physical memory.
- -- Page Table
- A data structure used to maintain the mapping between virtual addresses and physical addresses in memory.
- -- Dirty Bit
- A flag used in page tables to indicate whether a page has been modified in memory and needs to be written back to secondary storage before it is replaced.
- -- Page Size
- The size of a page in virtual memory, which affects the management of memory and the likelihood of page faults.
- -- Context Switch
- The mechanism by which a CPU switches from executing one process to executing another, involving changes to the page table register.
Additional Learning Materials
Supplementary resources to enhance your learning experience.