Advisor for flexible working sets

Rafael Alonso, Andrew W. Appel

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

15 Scopus citations

Abstract

The traditional model of virtual memory working sets does not account for programs that can adjust their working sets on demand. Examples of such programs are garbage-collected systems and databases with block cache buffers. We present a memory-use model of such systems, and propose a method that may be used by virtual memory managers to advise programs on how to adjust their working sets. Our method tries to minimize memory contention and ensure better overall system response time. We have implemented a memory 'advice server' that runs as a non-privileged process under Berkeley Unix. User processes may ask this server for advice about working set sizes, so as to take maximum advantage of memory resources. Our implementation is quite simple, and has negligible overhead, and experimental results show that it results in sizable performance improvements.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publicationProc 1990 ACM Sigmetrics Conf Meas Model Comput Syst
PublisherPubl by ACM
Pages153-162
Number of pages10
ISBN (Print)0897913590, 9780897913591
DOIs
StatePublished - 1990
EventProceedings of the 1990 ACM Sigmetrics Conference on Measurement and Modeling of Computer Systems - Boulder, CO, USA
Duration: May 22 1990May 25 1990

Publication series

NameProc 1990 ACM Sigmetrics Conf Meas Model Comput Syst

Other

OtherProceedings of the 1990 ACM Sigmetrics Conference on Measurement and Modeling of Computer Systems
CityBoulder, CO, USA
Period5/22/905/25/90

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Engineering

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