Patent ID: 6877081
Filing Date: 2005-04-05
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. In a computer system having an operating system and a compressed main memory defining a physical memory and a real memory characterized as fixed amount of main memory as seen by a processor, and including a compressed memory hardware controller device for controlling processor access to said compressed main memory, a compressed main memory control device for managing real memory usage comprising: compressed memory device driver for receiving real memory usage information from said compressed memory hardware controller, said information including a characterization of at least one real memory usage state including a memory usage state set according to an amount of physical memory used; compression management subsystem for monitoring said memory usage and initiating memory allocation and memory recovery in accordance with said at least one memory usage state, said subsystem including mechanism for adjusting physical memory usage thresholds for controlling memory state changes, a current memory usage threshold value including a value associated with each said at least one memory state including one of a steady state, warning state and emergency state governed according to:  steady state threshold<warning threshold<emergency threshold, and, an interrupt generator mechanism for generating an interrupt indicating memory usage exceeding a physical real memory usage threshold value, said compression management subsystem adjusting said physical memory usage thresholds in response to a generated interrupt, whereby control of said real memory usage in said computer system is accomplished without modification to an operating system kernel and transparent to said operating system.