Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | DIMES 2024 - Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Disruptive Memory Systems, Part of |
| Subtitle of host publication | SOSP 2024 |
| Pages | 33-40 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| ISBN (electronic) | 9798400713033 |
| Publication status | Published - 3 Nov 2024 |
| Event | 2nd Workshop on Disruptive Memory Systems, DIMES 2024, co-located with the 30th ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles, SOSP 2024 - Austin, United States Duration: 3 Nov 2024 → 3 Nov 2024 |
Publication series
| Name | Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Disruptive Memory Systems |
|---|
Abstract
External fragmentation is becoming a serious problem again after paging temporarily solved it with its one-size-fits-all 4 KiB approach. The increasing adoption of mixed base, huge, and giant page sizes, DRAM energy-saving techniques, and memory disaggregation, necessitates a memory management system capable of handling larger entities in the range of multiple megabytes up to several gigabytes. A case study in Linux reveals that the operating system reasonably minimizes fragmentation up to huge page size, but falls short when it comes to larger granularities. Therefore, it requires much effort to entirely free a memory block for powering down or returning it to the memory provider; in some cases, this may be entirely impossible due to immovable kernel memory. Additionally, our analysis highlights that the page cache is responsible for a large share of memory usage, as it keeps all cached pages until memory pressure rises. This behavior originates from the outdated assumption that utilizing memory comes at no cost and, therefore, requires further investigation.
Keywords
- Distributed Memory, DRAM, Energy Savings, Fragmentation, Linux, Memory Management, Operating Systems, Physical Memory
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Computer Science(all)
- Computational Theory and Mathematics
- Computer Science(all)
- Computer Science Applications
- Computer Science(all)
- Software
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DIMES 2024 - Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Disruptive Memory Systems, Part of: SOSP 2024. 2024. p. 33-40 (Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Disruptive Memory Systems).
Research output: Chapter in book/report/conference proceeding › Conference contribution › Research › peer review
}
TY - GEN
T1 - The New Costs of Physical Memory Fragmentation
AU - Halbuer, Alexander
AU - Ostapyshyn, Illia
AU - Steiner, Lukas
AU - Wrenger, Lars
AU - Jung, Matthias
AU - Dietrich, Christian
AU - Lohmann, Daniel
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 Owner/Author.
PY - 2024/11/3
Y1 - 2024/11/3
N2 - External fragmentation is becoming a serious problem again after paging temporarily solved it with its one-size-fits-all 4 KiB approach. The increasing adoption of mixed base, huge, and giant page sizes, DRAM energy-saving techniques, and memory disaggregation, necessitates a memory management system capable of handling larger entities in the range of multiple megabytes up to several gigabytes. A case study in Linux reveals that the operating system reasonably minimizes fragmentation up to huge page size, but falls short when it comes to larger granularities. Therefore, it requires much effort to entirely free a memory block for powering down or returning it to the memory provider; in some cases, this may be entirely impossible due to immovable kernel memory. Additionally, our analysis highlights that the page cache is responsible for a large share of memory usage, as it keeps all cached pages until memory pressure rises. This behavior originates from the outdated assumption that utilizing memory comes at no cost and, therefore, requires further investigation.
AB - External fragmentation is becoming a serious problem again after paging temporarily solved it with its one-size-fits-all 4 KiB approach. The increasing adoption of mixed base, huge, and giant page sizes, DRAM energy-saving techniques, and memory disaggregation, necessitates a memory management system capable of handling larger entities in the range of multiple megabytes up to several gigabytes. A case study in Linux reveals that the operating system reasonably minimizes fragmentation up to huge page size, but falls short when it comes to larger granularities. Therefore, it requires much effort to entirely free a memory block for powering down or returning it to the memory provider; in some cases, this may be entirely impossible due to immovable kernel memory. Additionally, our analysis highlights that the page cache is responsible for a large share of memory usage, as it keeps all cached pages until memory pressure rises. This behavior originates from the outdated assumption that utilizing memory comes at no cost and, therefore, requires further investigation.
KW - Distributed Memory
KW - DRAM
KW - Energy Savings
KW - Fragmentation
KW - Linux
KW - Memory Management
KW - Operating Systems
KW - Physical Memory
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85212517195&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/3698783.3699378
DO - 10.1145/3698783.3699378
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85212517195
T3 - Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Disruptive Memory Systems
SP - 33
EP - 40
BT - DIMES 2024 - Proceedings of the 2nd Workshop on Disruptive Memory Systems, Part of
T2 - 2nd Workshop on Disruptive Memory Systems, DIMES 2024, co-located with the 30th ACM Symposium on Operating Systems Principles, SOSP 2024
Y2 - 3 November 2024 through 3 November 2024
ER -