APPLICATION PROGRAMMING INTERFACE ENABLING APPLICATION PROGRAMS TO CONTROL ALLOCATION OF PHYSICAL MEMORY IN A VIRTUAL MEMORY SYSTEM

摘要

An application programming interface (API) enables application programs in a multitasking operating environment to control the allocation of physical memory in a virtual memory system. One API function enables applications to designate a soft page lock for code and data. The operating system ensures that the designated code and data are in physical memory when the application has the focus. When the application loses the focus, the pages associated with the code or data are released. When the application regains the focus, the operating system re-loads the pages into physical memory before the application begins to execute. The operating system is allowed to override the soft page lock where necessary. Another API enables applications to designate code or data that should have high priority access to physical memory, without using a lock. This API enables the application to specifically control the likelihood that a piece of code or data will remain in physical memory by assigning a priority to the code or data that defines its priority relative to the priority of other code or data contending for the same physical memory.