System Performance Tuning, 2nd Edition

Chapter 4. Memory

Ideally one would desire an indefinitely large memory capacity such that any particular. . . word would be immediately available. . . .

—A. W. Burks, H. H. Goldstine, and J. von Neumann: Preliminary Discussion of the Logical Design of an Electronic Computing Instrument, 1946

Physical memory is a set of integrated circuits designed to store binary data. This storage has two characteristic properties: it is transient, as all stored information vanishes when electrical power is lost, and randomly accessible, meaning any bit can be accessed as fast as any other bit. In addition to physical memory, most systems implement virtual memory, which acts to manage physical memory and provide a simple interface to application developers. Virtual memory is consumed by the system kernel, filesystem caches, intimately shared memory, and processes.

Memory performance begins to affect overall system performance in two instances. The first instance occurs when the system is unable to retrieve and store data from physical memory fast enough, or when the system is forced to travel to main memory frequently. This sort of problem can be attacked by tuning the algorithm that is responsible or by buying a system with faster access to main memory. The second, and more likely, case is that the demand for physical memory by all currently running applications, including the kernel, exceeds the available amount. The system is then forced to begin paging , or writing unused pieces of memory ...