Memory management (operating systems)

In operating systems, memory management is the function responsible for managing the computer's primary memory.

The memory management function keeps track of the status of each memory location, either allocated or free. It determines how memory is allocated among competing processes, deciding which gets memory, when they receive it, and how much they are allowed. When memory is allocated it determines which memory locations will be assigned. It tracks when memory is freed or unallocated and updates the status.

Single allocation is the simplest memory management technique. All the computer's memory, usually with the exception of a small portion reserved for the operating system, is available to the single application. MS-DOS is an example of a system which allocates memory in this way. An embedded system running a single application might also use this technique.

A system using single contiguous allocation may still multitask by swapping the contents of memory to switch among users. Early versions of the Music operating system used this technique.

Partitioned allocation divides primary memory into multiple memory partitions, usually contiguous areas of memory. Each partition might contain all the information for a specific job or task. Memory management consists of allocating a partition to a job when it starts and unallocating it when the job ends.

Partitioned allocation usually requires some hardware support to prevent the jobs from interfering with one another or with the operating system. The IBM System/360 used a lock-and-key technique. Other systems used base and bounds registers which contained the limits of the partition and flagged invalid accesses. The UNIVAC 1108 Storage Limits Register had separate base/bound sets for instructions and data. The system took advantage of memory interleaving to place what were called the i bank and d bank in separate memory modules.

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