Multiprogrammed memory management

A queueing network is used to show that the page-fault-rate functions of active programs axe the critical factors in system processing efficiency. Properties of page-fault functions are set forth in tenns of a locality model of program behavior. Memory management policies are grouped into two fixed-partition and three variable-partition classes acording to their methods of allocating memory and controlling the multiprogramming load. It is concluded that the so-called working set policies can be expected to yield the lowest paging rates and highest processing efficiency of all the classes.