Machine-Independent Virtual Memory Management for Paged Uniprocessor and Multiprocessor

Recent technological advances in memory management architectures, multiprocessor systems, and software architectures dictate a reevaluation of the virtual memory management support provided by an operating system. The problems posed by multiprocessor systems and the portability issues raised by the large variety of memory management units available have not been satisfactorily addressed by past virtual memory systems. In addition, increases in virtual memory functionality that can be provided by memory managed architectures have gone largely unnoticed by system designers. This paper describes the design, implementation, and evaluation of the Mach virtual memory management system. The Mach virtual memory system exhibits architecture indepedence, multiprocessor and distributed system support, and advanced functionality. The performance of this virtual memory system is shown to often exceed that of commercially developed memory management systems targeted at specific hardware architectures.