IDENTIFICATION OF LOW-ACTIVITY LARGE MEMORY PAGES

摘要

Large pages that may impede memory performance in computer systems are identified. In operation, mappings to selected large pages are temporarily demoted to mappings to small pages and accesses to these small pages are then tracked. For each selected large page, an activity level is determined based on the tracked accesses to the small pages included in the large page. By strategically selecting relatively low activity large pages for decomposition into small pages and subsequent memory reclamation while restoring the mappings to relatively high activity large pages, memory consumption is improved, while limiting performance impact attributable to using small pages.

主权项

1. A method of identifying an activity level for large pages in a computer system having memory that is partitioned and accessed as small pages and large pages, comprising:
selecting a large page that includes a group of small pages; updating mappings for the memory so that a mapping to the large page is changed to mappings to the small pages; tracking accesses to the small pages; and determining an activity level for the large page based on the accesses to the small pages.