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Similarly, a page frame is the smallest fixed-length contiguous block of physical memory into which memory pages are mapped by the operating system. [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] A transfer of pages between main memory and an auxiliary store, such as a hard disk drive , is referred to as paging or swapping.
Heterogeneous System Architecture (HSA) creates a unified virtual address space for CPUs, GPUs and DSPs, obsoleting the mapping tricks and data copying. x86-64, the 64-bit version of the x86 architecture, almost entirely removes segmentation in favor of the flat memory model used by almost all operating systems for the 386 or newer processors ...
An inverted page table (IPT) is best thought of as an off-chip extension of the TLB which uses normal system RAM. Unlike a true page table, it is not necessarily able to hold all current mappings. The operating system must be prepared to handle misses, just as it would with a MIPS-style software-filled TLB.
Some operating systems periodically look for pages that have not been recently referenced and then free the page frame and add it to the free page queue, a process known as "page stealing". Some operating systems [e] support page reclamation; if a program commits a page fault by referencing a page that was stolen, the operating system detects ...
The operating system provides an interface between an application program and the computer hardware, so that an application program can interact with the hardware only by obeying rules and procedures programmed into the operating system. The operating system is also a set of services which simplify development and execution of application programs.
The operating system delays loading parts of the program from disk until the program attempts to use it and the page fault is generated. If the page is not loaded in memory at the time of the fault, then it is called a major or hard page fault. The page fault handler in the OS needs to find a free location: either a free page in memory, or a ...
The scheduler is an operating system module that selects the next jobs to be admitted into the system and the next process to run. Operating systems may feature up to three distinct scheduler types: a long-term scheduler (also known as an admission scheduler or high-level scheduler), a mid-term or medium-term scheduler, and a short-term scheduler.
In computer science, an instruction set architecture (ISA) is an abstract model that generally defines how software controls the CPU in a computer or a family of computers. [1] A device or program that executes instructions described by that ISA, such as a central processing unit (CPU), is called an implementation of that ISA.