Page replacement algorithm for large‐array manipulation

Abstract

The Least Recently Used (LRU) method is the technique that is most often used for a page replacement algorithm. However, LRU may not be an effective method for some large‐array manipulation. A method for solving this problem is presented in this paper. In this method, the Operating System (OS) automatically detects loops that are not suitable for the LRU method. There is no necessity to modify application programs nor any additional overhead as long as sufficient real memory is provided. Therefore this method is most suitable for practical use. It functions on the basis of information about the relationship between the working set size and the window size, and indication of whether the detected page fault is caused by an instruction fetch or an operand fetch, etc. The results of experiments and improvements are also shown.

Data organization in large numerical computations

“…Virtual memory enables one to ignore the problem, but at the price of causing the program to be fatally inefficient [Bitner 1985;Moler 1972;Muramatsu and Negishi 1980]. In practice, the arrays must be partitioned in some fashion, with the subarrays in external storage (either on disk or secondlevel memory).…”