Store data in the system memory of a computing device

Details Store data in the system memory of a computing device Store data in the system memory of a computing device

2000-12-01

2004-07-06

Robertson, David L. (Department: 2186)

Electrical computers and digital processing systems: memory

Storage accessing and control

Memory configuring

C711S171000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06760826

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND INFORMATION
A computer system is comprised of numerous different components, each of which has a particular function in the operation of the computer system. For example,
FIG. 1
depicts an exemplary embodiment of personal computer (“PC”)
1
which may be a computing device or other microprocessor-based device including processor
10
, system memory
15
, hard drive
20
, disk drive
25
, I/O devices
30
, a display device
35
, keyboard
40
, mouse
45
and a connection to communication network
50
(e.g., the Internet). Each of these devices in PC
1
has one or more functions which allow PC
1
to operate in the manner intended by the user. For example, hard drive
20
stores data and files that the user may wish to access while operating PC
1
, disk drive
25
may allow the user to load additional data into PC
1
, I/O devices
30
may include a video card which allows output from PC
1
to be displayed on CRT display device
35
.
System memory
15
may be, for example, Random Access Memory (“RAM”) which is a type of memory for storage of data on a temporary basis. In contrast to the memory in hard drive
20
, system memory
15
is short term memory which is essentially erased each time PC
1
is powered off. System memory
15
holds temporary instructions and data needed to complete certain tasks. This temporary holding of data allows processor
10
to access instructions and data stored in system memory
15
very quickly. If processor
10
were required to access hard drive
20
or disk drive
25
each time it needed an instruction or data, it would significantly slow down the operation of PC
1
. All the software currently running on PC
1
require some portion of system memory
15
for proper operation. For example, the operating system, currently running application programs and networking software may all require some portion of the memory space in system memory
15
. Using the example of an application program, when the user of PC
1
enters a command in keyboard
40
or mouse
45
to open a word processing program, this command is carried out by processor
10
. Part of executing this command is for data and instructions stored in hard drive
20
for the word processing program to be loaded into system memory
15
which can provide data and instructions to processor
10
more quickly than hard drive
20
as the user continues to enter commands for the word processing program to execute.
When system memory
15
is RAM, the memory is randomly allocated to the applications in small chunks as needed. The chunks allocated to individual software programs do not have to be located continuously within system memory
15
. Processor
10
assigns each chunk a particular address and, in that way, processor
10
may randomly choose such addresses from a pool of available addresses. Since processor
10
continually assigns random addresses, the data for each individual program becomes highly fragmented throughout the memory space in system memory
15
. This fragmentation requires processor
10
to access multiple memory areas of system memory
15
for an individual application. This multiple accessing of system memory
15
slows down program operation and leads to inefficiencies in the operation of PC
1
.
Additionally, when processor
10
assigns addresses to the memory chunks of system memory
15
, these chunks are of a defined size, for example, 8 bytes. Every time a particular address is accessed and used to store data, the entire chunk is allocated without regard to the actual size of the data. For example, if processor
10
is loading data having a size of 4 bytes into a chunk of system memory
15
which is 8 bytes, the entire 8 bytes is not available even though only 4 of the 8 bytes are actually being used. As more data is stored in the temporary memory of system memory
15
, there may be a large amount of memory allocated to data that is not actually being used, but yet it cannot be allocated for other data because processor
10
detects that the address for the space is in use. Similarly, if processor
10
is loading data that is larger than the pre-assigned defined size of the chunks, chunks must be coalesced into a chunk large enough to handle the information.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A method for managing a memory of a computer system to store data of a particular size by defining chunks of the memory, wherein each chunk is a continuous memory space of a predetermined size. Defining chunk pools for managing the chunks, wherein each chunk pool corresponds to chunks of a particular size and defining unit pools for managing units of the first size, wherein the chunk pool corresponding to the unit pool provides a chunk of the particular size to be separated into the units of the first size, and the data of the first size is stored in the units.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5058003 (1991-10-01), White
patent: 5706461 (1998-01-01), Branstad et al.
patent: 6249852 (2001-06-01), Benayon et al.

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