RESOURCE MANAGEMENT WITH DYNAMIC RESOURCE POLICIES

• US 20150347181A1
• Filed: 05/30/2014
• Published: 12/03/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 05/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Desai, Lionel D., Myrick, Andrew D., Solomonov, Dmitriy B.
• Granted Patent: US 10,552,179 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/301 where the computing system is a virtual computing platform, e.g. logically partitioned systems virtual machines G06F9/45533; logical partitioning of resources G06F9/5077
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/34 Recording or statistical evaluation of computer activity, e.g. of down time, of input/output operation ; Recording or statistical evaluation of user activity, e.g. usability assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/3409 for performance assessment
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/02 Addressing or allocation; Relocation program address sequencing G06F9/00; arrangements for selecting an address in a digital store G11C8/00
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/023 Free address space management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/08 in hierarchically structured memory systems, e.g. virtual memory systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/1044 Space efficiency improvement
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/401 Compressed data
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/502 using adaptive policy
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44594 Unloading
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/485 Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution G06F9/4881 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/5016 the resource being the memory

Abstract

A method and apparatus of a device for resource management by using a hierarchy of resource management techniques with dynamic resource policies is described. The device terminates several misbehaving application programs when available memory on the device is running low. Each of those misbehaving application programs consumes more memory space than a memory consumption limit assigned to the application program. If available memory on the device is still low after terminating those misbehaving application programs, the device further sends memory pressure notifications to all application programs. If available memory on the device is still running low after sending the memory pressure notifications, the device further terminates background, idle, and suspended application programs. The device further terminates foreground application programs when available memory on the device is still low after terminating the background, idle, and suspended application programs.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for resource management of a data processing system, the method comprising:

determining whether available memory on the data processing system is low;

terminating one or more application programs when available memory on the data processing system is low, wherein each of the one or more application programs consumes more memory space than a memory consumption limit for the application program; and

sending memory pressure notifications to all application programs when available memory on the data processing system is low after the terminating of the one or more application programs.

2. The method of claim 1 further comprising terminating background, idle, and suspended application programs when available memory on the data processing system is low after the sending of the memory pressure notifications.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the terminating of the background, idle, and suspended application programs comprises:

terminating the idle application programs;

terminating the suspended application programs when available memory on the data processing system is low after the terminating of the idle application programs; and

terminating the background application programs when available memory on the data processing system is low after the terminating of the suspended application programs.

4. The method of claim 2 further comprising terminating foreground application programs when available memory on the data processing system is low after the terminating of the background, idle, and suspended application programs.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the terminating of the foreground application programs is according to a sequence that is sorted based on a size of memory space consumed by each foreground application program, wherein a foreground application program that consumes the largest amount of memory space is terminated first.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the memory consumption limit for the application program is determined based on a state associated with the application program, wherein memory consumption limit for each state is pre-determined and known to application developers.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein states that may associate with the application program comprise foreground application, background media application, and shared screen foreground application.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein when the application program transitions from a first state to a second state with a reduced memory consumption limit, the method further comprising:

determining whether the application program consumes more than a pre-determined percentage of the reduced memory consumption limit of the second state;

sending a memory pressure notification to the application program if the application program consumes more than the pre-determined percentage of the reduced memory consumption limit of the second state;

waiting a time period; and

changing the memory consumption limit for the application program to the reduced memory consumption limit of the second state after the waiting of the time period.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein available memory on the data processing system is low when a ratio of available memory to total memory on the data processing system is below a threshold.

10. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having executable instructions to cause one or more processing units to perform a method of resource management of a data processing system, the method comprising:

determining whether available memory on the data processing system is low;

terminating one or more application programs when available memory on the data processing system is low, wherein each of the one or more application programs consumes more memory space than a memory consumption limit for the application program; and

sending memory pressure notifications to all application programs when available memory on the data processing system is low after the terminating of the one or more application programs.

11. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, the method further comprising terminating background, idle, and suspended application programs when available memory on the data processing system is low after the sending of the memory pressure notifications.

12. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 11, wherein the terminating of the background, idle, and suspended application programs comprises:

terminating the idle application programs;

terminating the suspended application programs when available memory on the data processing system is low after the terminating of the idle application programs; and

terminating the background application programs when available memory on the data processing system is low after the terminating of the suspended application programs.

13. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 11, the method further comprising terminating foreground application programs when available memory on the data processing system is low after the terminating of the background, idle, and suspended application programs.

14. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 13, wherein the terminating of foreground application programs is according to a sequence that is sorted based on a size of memory space consumed by each foreground application program, wherein a foreground application program that consumes the largest amount of memory space is terminated first.

15. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 10, wherein the memory consumption limit for the application program is determined based on a state in which the application program exists.

16. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 15, wherein when the application program transitions from a first state to a second state with a reduced memory consumption limit, the method further comprising:

determining whether the application program consumes more than a pre-determined percentage of the reduced memory consumption limit of the second state;

sending a memory pressure notification to the application program if the application program consumes more than the pre-determined percentage of the reduced memory consumption limit of the second state;

waiting a time period; and

changing the memory consumption limit for the application program to the reduced memory consumption limit of the second state after the waiting of the time period.

17. A device to perform resource management, the device comprising:

a processor;

a memory coupled to the processor though a bus; and

a process executed from the memory by the processor causes the processor to determine whether available memory on the data processing system is low, terminate one or more application programs when available memory on the device is low, wherein each of the one or more application programs has a memory violation by consuming more memory space than a memory consumption limit for the application program and previously received notice regarding the memory violation, and sends memory pressure notifications to all application programs when available memory on the device is low after the terminating of the one or more application programs.

18. The device of claim 17, wherein the process further causes the processor to terminate background, idle, and suspended application programs when available memory on the device is low after sending the memory pressure notifications.

19. The device of claim 18, wherein the process further causes the processor to terminate foreground application programs when available memory on the device is low after terminating background, idle, and suspended application programs.

20. The device of claim 19, wherein terminating foreground application programs is according to a sequence that is sorted based on a size of memory space consumed by each foreground application program, wherein a foreground application program that consumes the largest amount of memory space is terminated first.

21. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having executable instructions to cause one or more processing units to perform a method of resource management of a data processing system, the method comprising:

determining whether available memory on the data processing system is low;

applying a hierarchy of memory management processes to reduce memory pressure when available memory on the data processing system is low; and

terminating a foreground application that uses more memory than any other foreground application when available memory on the data processing system is low after the applying of the hierarchy of memory management processes.

22. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 21, wherein the hierarchy of memory management processes comprises one or more of:

sending memory pressure notifications that request desired levels of memory usage reduction to applications;

purging volatile memory that is marked as purgeable by executing or suspended applications;

paging out memory pages of an application from volatile memory to non-volatile memory;

paging out memory pages of an application to a compressed virtual memory;

terminating suspended applications; and

terminating background applications that are not suspended.

23. The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 22, wherein the compressed virtual memory is a compressed region within main volatile memory.

24. A computer-implemented method for resource management of a data processing system, the method comprising:

receiving a request to transition an application program from a first state to a second state with a reduced memory consumption limit;

determining whether the application program consumes more than a pre-determined percentage of the reduced memory consumption limit of the second state;

sending a memory pressure notification to the application program if the application program consumes more than the pre-determined percentage of the reduced memory consumption limit of the second state;

waiting a time period; and

changing the memory consumption limit for the application program to the reduced memory consumption limit of the second state after the waiting of the time period.

25. The method of claim 24, wherein each of the first and second state is one of a plurality of application states that comprise foreground application, background media application, and shared screen foreground application.