What is page fault?, Operating System

Assignment Help:

What is page fault?

In the computer storage technology a page fault is an exception which is raised by the memory management unit when a requested page isn't mapped in physical memory. This exception is passed on to the OS (operating system) which is able to then try to handle the exception by making the required page accessible at a location in physical memory.

For instance a page fault may take place when a program requests a page in memory and the system can't find it at the requested location. If the page is elsewhere in memory then the fault is called as a soft page fault. If the page should be retrieved from disk, the fault is called as a hard page fault.

Opposing to what its name might suggest a page fault is never a fatal error. Actually, it is a relatively normal occurrence in any OS operating system that utilizes virtual memory in order to increase the amount of memory available to programs. The term General Page Fault is habitually found printed on the screens of computers running a Microsoft Windows operating system when a serious error has take placed in the paging algorithms that handle an ordinary and generally harmless page fault. This kind of paging error takes place in the software handling the exception, and isn't directly related to the page fault itself, which take place in hardware.

Page faults by their extremely nature degrade a program's or operating system's performance and is able to cause thrashing.  Optimizing any or every program's memory usage and commonly making more physical memory available reduces the number of page faults that occur, and get better the program's or the entire system's performance.

 

 


Related Discussions:- What is page fault?

Describe the possible rmi invocation semantics, Question: (a) Explain t...

Question: (a) Explain the similarities and differences between two different threads running in the same process and two independent processes. When would you want to use two t

Explain virtual file systems, Virtual file systems The file-system exec...

Virtual file systems The file-system execution having of three major layers. The first layer is the file-system interface, based on the open, read, write and close calls and fi

Write a short note on disk structure, Write a short note on disk structure ...

Write a short note on disk structure Modern disk drives are initiate as large one dimensional array of logical blocks where the logical block is the smallest unit of transfer.

Determine the syntax of the assembler directive equ, Determine the syntax o...

Determine the syntax of the assembler directive EQU The following is syntax of the assembler directive EQU: EQU

Define dynamic linking, Define dynamic linking. Dynamic linking is same...

Define dynamic linking. Dynamic linking is same to dynamic loading, rather that loading being postponed unless execution time, linking is postponed. This feature is usually use

Define overflow chaining, Define Overflow Chaining Another method will ...

Define Overflow Chaining Another method will divide the pre-allocated table into two sections: the primary area to determine which keys are mapped and an area for collisions, g

Tcp and ip stack, What does the last four digits '0010' of the above dump r...

What does the last four digits '0010' of the above dump represent? What action will the Destination node takes when it receives this packet? The last four digits '0010' denotes

What are the various available scheme in ipc, Several schemes available are...

Several schemes available are as follows: Pipes : One-way communication process through which different process can interact. The problem is that the two processes could have

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd