IDENTIFICATION OF PAGE SHARING OPPORTUNITIES WITHIN LARGE PAGES

摘要

Memory performance in a computer system that implements large page mapping is improved even when memory is scarce by identifying page sharing opportunities within the large pages at the granularity of small pages and breaking up the large pages so that small pages within the large page can be freed up through page sharing. In addition, the number of small page sharing opportunities within the large pages can be used to estimate the total amount of memory that could be reclaimed through page sharing.

主权项

1. A method of reclaiming memory in a computer system where the memory is partitioned and accessed as small pages and large pages, comprising:
selecting a large page that is comprised of a group of small pages based on a number of small page sharing opportunities identified therein; updating mappings for the memory so that a mapping to the selected large page is changed to mappings to small pages, at least one of the small pages being a shared small page; and marking one or more of the small pages in the group as free.