Page replacement policy for systems having multiple page sizes

• US 7,487,329 B2
• Filed: 02/05/2008
• Issued: 02/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/06/2005
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Hepkin, David Alan, Mathews, Thomas Stanley
• Primary Examiner(s): Bragdon; Reginald G
• Assistant Examiner(s): Dinh; Ngoc V
• Application Number:
  US12/026,345
• Publication Number:
  US 20080126738A1
• Time in Patent Office: 364 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 711/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/1027 using associative or pseudo-associative address translation means, e.g. translation look-aside buffer [TLB]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/128 adapted to multidimensional cache systems, e.g. set-associative, multicache, multiset or multilevel
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2212/652 Page size control

Abstract

In a data processing system utilizing multiple page sizes for virtual memory paging, a system, method, and article of manufacture for managing page replacement. In one embodiment, the page replacement method begins with a page frame allocation request, such as may be generated following a page fault. A page replacement procedure is invoked to select one or more pages to be replaced by the requested page(s). In a preferred embodiment, the page replacement includes a step of selecting, in accordance with a page type allocation of at least one of the multiple page sizes, a page size to be utilized for page replacement for the page frame allocation request.

Claims

1. For use in a data processing system utilizing multiple page sizes for virtual memory paging, a computer-readable data storage medium having encoding thereon computer-executable instructions for managing page replacement, said computer-executable instructions performing a method comprising:

receiving a page frame allocation request; and

selecting, in accordance with a page type allocation of at least one of the multiple page sizes, a page size to be utilized for page replacement for said page frame allocation request, wherein in response to the selected page size not matching a page size specified by the page frame allocation request, said method further comprising converting page frames having the selected page size to page frames having the requested page size.

2. The computer-readable data storage medium of claim 1, said method further comprising determining a page type allocation of at least one of the multiple pages sizes.

3. The computer-readable data storage medium of claim 2, said determining a page type allocation of at least one of the multiple pages sizes further comprising comparing a page type allocation of a first page size with a page type allocation of a second page size.

4. The computer-readable data storage medium of claim 2, said determining a page type allocation of at least one of the multiple page sizes further comprising comparing the page type allocation of at least one of the multiple page sizes with a page type allocation limit.

5. The computer-readable data storage medium of claim 2, wherein page types of the multiple page sizes include persistent storage pages and working storage pages, said determining a page type allocation of at least one of the multiple page sizes comprising determining memory allocation of persistent storage pages or working storage pages for at least one of the multiple page sizes.