Pagefile Reservation System for Disk Seek Time Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Fragmentation in the pagefile of a computer system's virtual memory leads to inefficient data retrieval, causing significant delays due to the need for non-sequential access on hard disk drives, which affects system performance and user experience.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a reservation system within the pagefile to cluster related pages together, reducing fragmentation by reserving space for adjacent pages, and using bitmaps to track reservations and allocations, allowing for sequential data access and minimizing seek time during data retrieval.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If data is written to non-volatile memory when not actively used, then space in RAM is freed for active processes, but system performance suffers due to excessive swapping between RAM and non-volatile memory
Solution Approach 1:
The patent reserves contiguous regions in the pagefile before pages need to be written, preparing storage space in advance for related pages. This preliminary action reduces the time penalty of swapping by ensuring that when pages are written to non-volatile memory, they can be placed in pre-reserved contiguous regions rather than scattered locations, minimizing seek time and improving overall system performance while maintaining adequate RAM availability
2Adaptability or versatility
If the pagefile is fragmented, then pages can be written to any available space, but reading data from the hard disk becomes extremely time inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the pagefile into multiple reserved regions, each dedicated to storing pages from a specific virtual address range. This segmentation ensures that related pages remain contiguous within their respective regions while maintaining the flexibility to accommodate different page allocation patterns. The segmented structure eliminates fragmentation-induced seek time by guaranteeing that pages needing to be read together are stored together in predetermined contiguous regions
3Speed
If contiguous regions are reserved in the pagefile for related pages, then sequential access efficiency improves, but the pagefile structure becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by creating reserved regions with specific characteristics tailored to their purpose - each region is optimized for storing pages from a particular virtual address range with contiguous physical locations. This localized optimization improves sequential access speed for related pages while the overall system maintains simplicity through the systematic, range-based organization rather than complex global management structures
Data Source
AI summary
A system and method for maintaining a pagefile of a computer system using a technique of reserving portions of the pagefile for related memory pages. Pages near one another in a virtual memory space often store related information and it is therefore beneficial to ensure that they are stored near each other in the pagefile. This increases the speed of reading data out of the pagefile because total seek time of a disk drive that stores the pagefile may decrease when adjacent pages in a virtual memory address space are read back from the disk drive. By implementing a reservation system that allows related pages to be stored adjacent to one another, the efficiency of memory management of the computer system is increased.