JP5103954B2 - Memory management device, memory management method and program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a memory management device, a memory management method, and a program for managing a free area of a memory.

  Normally, a memory is used for starting an application program. If there is a shortage of memory space during the start-up, the operating system (abbreviated as OS) performs an area securing process for securing the memory space. The area securing process is, for example, a swap process.

  If the area securing process is performed during the activation of the application program, there is a problem that it takes a very long time to complete the activation of the application program.

  Conventionally, in order to improve this problem, a memory management device is used.

  First, when activation of an application program is requested, the memory management device predicts the memory usage of the application program requested to be activated. Subsequently, in the memory management device, the OS secures a free memory area of the predicted usage amount, and then starts the application program.

  As a result, it is possible to improve the startup speed of the application program.

  As such a memory management device, for example, there is a system monitoring device described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-256111.

  In this system monitoring apparatus, system resource monitoring means is provided. The system resource monitoring means includes a prediction means for predicting a memory size used in the application program, and a securing means for securing a memory area used in the application program based on the predicted memory size. .

  Each time the application program is activated, the prediction means acquires the memory size used by the application program.

The securing means calculates an average value of memory sizes acquired in the past by the predicting means, and secures a memory area by the calculated average value.
JP 2001-256111 A

  The system monitoring device described in Patent Literature 1 calculates a memory size for use by an application program that is requested to start up from a past usage amount after a request for starting the application program, and the memory size for the memory size. A memory area is secured.

  For this reason, it takes a long time from the start of the application to the end of the start of the application.

  An object of the present invention is to provide a memory management device, a memory management method, and a program capable of quickly starting an application program.

  In order to achieve the above object, a memory management device of the present invention is a memory management device that secures an amount of memory necessary for starting an application program for which a startup procedure is predetermined, and includes a memory, an application program, A specific storage unit that stores the identification information of the application program in association with each other, and an activation procedure storage unit that associates and stores the identification information of the application program and the identification information of another application program activated from the application program A demand storage unit that stores the identification information of the other application program in association with the amount of memory required to start the other application program, and a startup request for starting the application program, App requested in request A selection unit that selects identification information associated with an application program from the specific storage unit, and identification information of the other application program that is associated with the identification information selected by the selection unit from the startup procedure storage unit And a memory amount associated with the identification information selected by the monitoring unit is selected from the demand storage unit, and a free area of the memory is checked, and the free area is larger than the selected memory amount. And when the estimation unit determines that the free area is smaller than the memory amount, the free area of the memory is secured until the free area of the memory becomes the memory amount. And a management unit.

  Also, the memory management method of the present invention includes information associating an application program with identification information of the application program, identification information of the application program, and identification information of another application program started from the application program. Necessary for launching an application program whose launch procedure is determined in advance by utilizing the associated information and the information that associates the identification information of the other application program with the amount of memory necessary for launching the other application program A memory management method for securing a sufficient amount of memory, which is associated with a reception step for receiving a start request for starting the application program, and an application program requested by the received start request A first selection step of selecting identification information; a second selection step of selecting identification information of the other application program associated with the selected identification information; and identification information of the selected other application program A third selection step for selecting a memory amount associated with the memory, an investigation step for examining a free area of the memory, and a determination for determining whether or not the examined free area is larger than the selected memory amount And, when it is determined that the free area is smaller than the memory amount, a securing step of securing the memory area until the free area of the memory reaches the memory amount.

  According to the above invention, the free space of the memory is secured until the memory amount necessary for starting another application program started from the application program is reached.

  For this reason, it is possible to secure an amount of memory necessary for starting another application program before the start of another application program is requested. Therefore, the application program can be activated quickly.

  In addition, the memory management device of the present invention activates, from the process, an operation storage unit that stores a generation pattern of a system call for starting a process in association with the identification information of the process, and the identification information of the process. A process startup procedure storage unit that stores the identification information of the other process in association with the identification information of the other process, and the process demand storage that stores the identification information of the other process in association with the amount of memory necessary for the operation of the other process. Analyzing the system call generation pattern generated by the execution unit, selecting process identification information associated with the generation pattern from the operation storage unit, A process monitoring unit that selects, from the process activation procedure storage unit, identification information of the other process associated with the identification information of the process; The estimation unit selects a memory amount associated with the process identification information selected by the process monitoring unit from the process demand storage unit, checks a free area of the memory, and It is desirable to determine whether or not the selected memory amount is larger.

  The memory management method of the present invention also includes information that associates a generation pattern of a system call for starting a process with identification information of the process, and identification information of the process of another process that is started from the process. A generation step for generating the system call by utilizing information associated with identification information and information associated with identification information of the another process and an amount of memory necessary for the operation of the other process; and the system An analysis step for analyzing a call generation pattern; a first process selection step for selecting identification information of a process associated with the analyzed generation pattern; and a separate step associated with the identification information of the selected process. A second process selection step for selecting the identification information of the other process and the identification information of the selected another process. It is desirable to include a third process selecting step of selecting the memory amount.

  According to the above invention, the free area of the memory is secured until the memory amount necessary for the operation of another process started from the process is reached.

  For this reason, it is possible to secure an amount of memory necessary for the operation of another process before another process is generated. Therefore, when an application program process is started, a free memory area necessary for the operation of the application program process is secured in advance, so that a free memory area is easily secured, and another process can be quickly generated. Can be performed. Therefore, the application program can be activated quickly.

  The memory management device of the present invention includes a process activation procedure storage unit that stores process identification information in association with identification information of another process activated from the process, and identification information of the other process, A process demand storage unit that stores the amount of memory necessary for the operation of the other process in association with it, an execution unit that sends process identification information corresponding to the function when receiving an execution request to execute the function; A process monitoring unit that selects, from the process activation procedure storage unit, identification information of another process associated with the process identification information received from the execution unit, and the estimation unit includes the process monitoring unit A memory amount associated with the identification information of the selected process is selected from the process demand storage unit, and a free area of the memory is checked, and the free area is the selected It was it is desirable to determine greater or not than the memory capacity.

  Also, the memory management method of the present invention requires information for associating process identification information with identification information of another process started from the process and the identification information of the other process for the operation of the other process. An input step for accepting an execution request to execute a function by utilizing information associated with a sufficient amount of memory, a transmission step for sending process identification information corresponding to the function, and an identification of the sent process A fourth process selection step for selecting identification information of another process associated with the information, and a fifth process selection step for selecting an amount of memory associated with the identification information of the selected other process. It is desirable to include.

  According to the above invention, the process identification information corresponding to the function requested to be executed is sent. Further, identification information of another process associated with the identification information of the process is selected.

  For this reason, even if the system call generation pattern is not analyzed, it is possible to reduce the memory area secured when the application program is activated. Therefore, the application program can be activated more quickly.

  Further, in the memory management device of the present invention, when the estimation unit determines that the free area is smaller than the memory amount, the management unit continues until the free area of the memory reaches the memory amount. It is desirable to include a swap processing unit for swapping out the data in the inside.

  In the memory management method of the present invention, when it is determined that the free area is smaller than the memory amount, the management step swaps data in the memory until the free area of the memory becomes the memory amount. It is desirable to include a swap-out step to out.

  According to the above invention, the data in the memory is swapped out until the free space of the memory reaches the required memory amount. For this reason, an empty area of the memory is easily secured, and the application program can be started up quickly.

  Further, in the memory management device of the present invention, the estimation unit examines a free area having consecutive addresses in the memory and determines whether or not the free area is larger than a memory amount selected by the estimation unit. The management unit may include an organizing unit that defragments the memory until the free area where the addresses are continuous is smaller than the memory amount, until the free area where the addresses are continuous reaches the memory amount. desirable.

  Further, in the memory management method of the present invention, in the investigating step, a free area having consecutive addresses is examined in the memory, and the managing step determines that the free area having consecutive addresses is smaller than the memory amount. Preferably, the method further includes a defragmentation step of defragmenting the memory until a free area where the addresses are continuous reaches the memory amount.

  According to the above-described invention, defragmentation is performed until a free area having consecutive addresses in the memory reaches a necessary memory amount. For this reason, when there is a need for free memory space with consecutive addresses, even if there is no swap device, free memory space with consecutive addresses is secured, so application programs can be started up quickly. become.

  The program of the present invention causes a computer to execute the memory management method.

  According to the present invention, it is possible to quickly start an application program.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

  FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the memory management device according to the first embodiment of the present invention. The memory management device has a function of starting an application program, and the starting procedure of the application program is predetermined. The memory management device is incorporated in the computer system.

  In FIG. 1, the memory management device includes an information processing unit 10, a storage unit 20, and a memory 30.

  The information processing unit 10 includes an application selection unit 1, an application control unit 2, an application monitoring unit 3, a memory estimation unit 4, and a memory management unit 51.

  The storage unit 20 includes an application startup procedure storage unit 21, an application memory demand storage unit 22, and an application identification storage unit 23.

  The application startup procedure storage unit (abbreviated as startup procedure storage unit) 21 stores a startup procedure for associating an application program when starting another application program from a certain application program. At this time, there may be a plurality of associations from one application program to another application program. These associations are set using identification information of each application program. Hereinafter, another application program started from a certain application program is referred to as a subsequent application program.

  The activation procedure can be represented by a tree indicating the hierarchical structure of the application program. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a procedure for starting an application program.

  In FIG. 2, nodes 201 to 208 indicate application programs, respectively. The application program indicated by other than the nodes 202, 206, 207, and 208 also operates as a menu for starting the subsequent application program. The node 201 is an application program that is activated first from the application selection unit 1.

  The application memory demand storage unit (abbreviated as demand storage unit) 22 stores demand information for each application program (for each identification information of the application program) that associates an amount of memory necessary for starting the application program.

  The required amount of memory may be obtained from the amount of memory used for activation by an application program activated in the past, or may be set in advance by a designer or user of the application program.

  The application specific storage unit (abbreviated as a specific storage unit) 23 stores specific information that associates an application program installed in the computer system with identification information of the application program.

  An application selection unit (abbreviated as a selection unit) 1 accepts an activation request to activate an application program. The selection unit 1 selects identification information associated with the application program requested by the activation request from the specific storage unit 23, and activates the application program to the application control unit (abbreviated as control unit) 2. Request.

  Here, the selection unit 1 may receive a startup request from an input device of the computer system, or may be received from a CPU that operates according to another application program or OS installed in the computer system. The OS is software installed in the computer system.

  The control unit 2 requests the CPU that operates according to the OS to start and execute the process constituting the application program requested by the selection unit 1, and simultaneously requests the management unit 51 to secure free memory.

  The application monitoring unit (abbreviated as monitoring unit) 3 selects the identification information of the subsequent application program associated with the identification information of the application program selected by the selection unit 1 from the startup procedure storage unit 21. When the identification information of the plurality of subsequent application programs is associated with the identification information of the application program selected by the selection unit 1, the monitoring unit 3 selects the identification information of the plurality of subsequent application programs.

  The memory estimation unit (abbreviated as estimation unit) 4 selects a necessary memory amount associated with the identification information of the subsequent application program selected by the monitoring unit 3. When the monitoring unit 3 selects the identification information of a plurality of subsequent application programs, the estimation unit 4 selects the most necessary memory amount associated with each of the identification information items of the plurality of subsequent application programs. A large memory amount is selected from the demand storage unit 22.

  Further, the estimation unit 4 checks the current free area of the memory 30 and determines whether or not the free area is larger than the necessary memory amount.

  The management unit 51 manages the memory 30 such as securing and releasing a free area of the memory 30.

  When the estimation unit 4 determines that the free area is smaller than the required memory amount, the management unit 51 secures the free area in the memory 30 until the free area reaches the required memory amount.

  In the management unit 51, the swap processing unit 511 swaps out the data in the memory 30 to a swap device (not shown) until the free space becomes the necessary memory amount. At this time, before the swap processing unit 511 swaps out, the management unit 51 may attempt to release an unnecessary candidate memory area that is highly likely to be unnecessary in the memory 30. In this case, swap-out is executed when a necessary memory amount is not ensured by releasing the unnecessary candidate memory area.

  The swap processing unit 511 swaps out data in the unnecessary candidate memory area that is highly likely to be unnecessary in the memory 30. The method of selecting the unnecessary candidate memory area by the swap processing unit 511 is, for example, a method of selecting the memory area as an unnecessary candidate memory area in order from the memory area with the smallest number of accesses within a certain period. The method for selecting unnecessary candidate memory areas is not limited to this method, and can be changed as appropriate. Moreover, since this selection method is obvious to those skilled in the art, a detailed description is omitted.

  Next, the operation will be described.

  FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the memory management device.

  In step A <b> 1, the selection unit 1 receives the activation request and selects identification information associated with the application program requested by the activation request from the specific storage unit 23. The selection unit 1 sends the identification information to the control unit 2 and the monitoring unit 3.

  Upon receipt of the identification information, control unit 2 sends a process execution request for starting and executing a process constituting the application program specified by the identification information to the CPU operating in accordance with the OS.

  When the monitoring unit 3 receives the identification information, the monitoring unit 3 executes Step A2.

  In step A2, the monitoring unit 3 selects the identification information of the subsequent application program associated with the identification information of the application program requested to be activated from the activation procedure storage unit 21, and estimates the identification information of the subsequent application program. Send to 4. When the identification information of the plurality of subsequent application programs is associated with the identification information of the application program, the monitoring unit 3 selects the identification information of the plurality of subsequent application programs from the startup procedure storage unit 21, The identification information of the selected subsequent application programs is sent to the estimation unit 4.

  When the estimation unit 4 receives the identification information of the subsequent application program, the estimation unit 4 executes Step A3.

  In step A <b> 3, the estimation unit 4 selects a necessary memory amount associated with the identification information of the subsequent application program from the demand storage unit 22. In addition, when the estimation unit 4 receives the identification information of the plurality of subsequent application programs from the monitoring unit 3, the estimation unit 4 selects the largest number of necessary memory amounts associated with the identification information items of the plurality of subsequent application programs. A large memory amount is selected from the demand storage unit 22. When the estimation unit 4 selects a necessary memory amount, the estimation unit 4 executes Step A4.

  In step A4, the estimation unit 4 examines the free area of the memory 30 and determines whether or not the free area is larger than the necessary memory amount. The estimation unit 4 executes Step A5 when the free area is smaller than the necessary memory area, and ends the operation when the free area is larger than the necessary memory amount.

  In step A <b> 5, the estimation unit 4 generates a securing request for securing a free area, and sends the securing request to the management unit 51. The securing request includes a free area and a necessary memory amount.

  Upon receipt of the securing request, the management unit 51 sends a swap-out request to the swap processing unit 511. Note that the swap-out request includes a free area and a necessary memory amount.

  At this time, the management unit 51 may attempt to release an unnecessary candidate memory area in the memory 30 before sending a swap-out request. In this case, a swap-out request is sent when a necessary amount of memory is not secured by releasing the unnecessary candidate memory area.

  When the swap processing unit 511 receives the swap-out request, for example, the swap processing unit 511 obtains the difference between the required memory amount and the free space as the securement amount, and selects the unnecessary candidate memory region corresponding to the securement amount. The data in the selected unnecessary candidate memory area is swapped out to the swap device.

  In addition, the swap processing unit 511 performs swap-out in the descending order of the degree of indicating that the unnecessary candidate memory area is unnecessary, for example, in ascending order of the number of accesses. It may be terminated. Note that the swap-out method is not limited to these methods, and can be changed as appropriate.

  When the swap processing unit 511 swaps out the data in the unnecessary candidate memory area, the swap processing unit 511 sends to the estimation unit 4 that the swap-out is completed. When the estimation unit 4 accepts that fact, the estimation unit 4 executes Step A4. This is to confirm whether or not the free space actually becomes larger than the required amount.

  Next, the effect will be described.

  According to the present embodiment, the activation procedure storage unit 21 stores identification information of a certain application program in association with identification information of a subsequent application program activated from the application program. The demand storage unit 22 stores the identification information of the application program in association with the memory amount necessary for starting the application program. The specific storage unit 23 stores the application program in association with the identification information of the application program.

  The selection unit 1 receives the activation request, and selects identification information associated with the application program requested by the activation request from the specific storage unit 23. The monitoring unit 3 selects the identification information of the subsequent application program associated with the identification information selected by the selection unit 1 from the startup procedure storage unit 21. The estimation unit 4 selects the necessary memory amount associated with the identification information selected by the monitoring unit 3 from the demand storage unit 22. The estimation unit 4 determines whether or not the free area is larger than the selected necessary memory amount. When the estimation unit 4 determines that the free area is smaller than the necessary memory amount, the management unit 51 secures an area of the memory 30 until the free area becomes the necessary memory amount.

  For this reason, it is possible to secure an amount of memory necessary for starting the subsequent application program before the start of the subsequent application program is requested. Therefore, the application program can be activated quickly.

  Further, in the present embodiment, the management unit 51 secures an area of the memory 30 by swapping out data in the memory 30 until the free area reaches the required memory capacity.

  For this reason, an empty area of the memory is easily secured, and the application program can be started up quickly.

  Next, a memory management device according to the second embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of the memory management device according to the second embodiment. In the following, the configuration and operation different from those in FIG. 1 will be mainly described. In FIG. 4, the same components as those in FIG.

  In FIG. 4, the management unit 51 includes a memory organization / recovery unit 512 instead of the swap processing unit 511. The other configuration of the memory management device is the same as that shown in FIG.

  In general, when the securing and releasing of the area of the memory are repeated, the data in the memory 30 is fragmented, and the free area of the memory 30 is also fragmented. If small free space fragments increase, there may be a case where it is not possible to secure a free space with a continuous memory address corresponding to the amount of memory required for starting an application program. In this case, it may take time to start the application program.

  The estimation unit 4 examines a free area where memory addresses are continuous in the memory 30 and determines whether or not the free area is larger than the necessary memory amount selected from the demand storage unit 22.

  If it is determined by the estimation unit 4 that the free area where the memory addresses are continuous is smaller than the required memory amount, the management unit 51 in the memory 30 until the free area where the memory addresses are continuous becomes the required memory amount. Are rearranged so that the fragmented data are continuous, and an area of the memory 30 is secured.

  Specifically, the memory organizing / collecting unit (abbreviated as organizing unit) 512 of the managing unit 51 defragments the memory 30 until the free space where the memory addresses are continuous becomes the necessary memory amount. As a result, it is possible to secure an area having continuous memory addresses, which is the amount of memory necessary for starting the application program.

  FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing an example of a memory area before and after the organizing unit 512 defragments. In FIG. 5, “empty” indicates a free area, and “in use” indicates a used area. In FIG. 5, the vacant areas that have been sectioned before defragmentation (before processing) are continuous after defragmentation (after processing).

  For example, if a continuous free area of “4 MB” is required, and there is no continuous free area of “4 MB” before processing, the organizing unit 512 causes the free area with continuous memory addresses to become “4 MB”. Defragment the memory 30.

  Next, the operation will be described.

  FIG. 6 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the memory management device according to the second embodiment. In FIG. 6, the same processes as those described in FIG.

  In step A3, when the estimation unit 4 selects a necessary memory amount, the estimation unit 4 executes step A6.

  In step A6, the estimation unit 4 examines a free area of the memory 30 having consecutive memory addresses, and determines whether or not the free area is larger than the necessary memory amount. The estimation unit 4 executes Step A7 when the free area is smaller than the necessary memory amount, and ends the operation when the free area is larger than the necessary memory amount.

  In step A <b> 7, the estimation unit 4 generates a reservation request and sends the reservation request to the management unit 51.

  When accepting the securing request, the management unit 51 sends a defragmentation request to the organizing unit 512. The defragmentation request includes a free area and a necessary memory amount.

  At this time, the management unit 51 may attempt to release an unnecessary candidate memory area in the memory 30 before sending a defragmentation request. In this case, a defragmentation request is sent when a necessary memory amount is not ensured by releasing an unnecessary candidate memory area.

  When the organizing unit 512 receives the defragmentation request, the organizing unit 512 defragments the memory 30 until the free space of the memory 30 with consecutive memory addresses reaches a necessary memory amount. When the organizing unit 512 defragments the memory 30, the organizing unit 512 notifies the estimating unit 4 that the defragmentation is completed. When the estimation unit 4 accepts that fact, the estimation unit 4 executes Step A6.

  Next, the effect will be described.

  According to the present embodiment, the estimation unit 4 examines a free area having consecutive addresses in the memory 30 and determines whether or not the free area is larger than a necessary memory amount. If the free area is smaller than the required memory amount, the management unit 51 defragments the memory 30 until the free area of the memory having consecutive memory addresses reaches the required memory amount.

  In this case, the memory 30 is defragmented until a free area having consecutive addresses reaches a necessary memory amount.

  For this reason, when an empty area with consecutive addresses is required, an empty area of a memory with consecutive addresses is secured even if there is no swap device, so that the application program can be started up quickly. .

  Next, a memory management device according to the third embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 7 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the memory management device according to the third embodiment. Hereinafter, a configuration different from FIG. 1 will be mainly described. In FIG. 7, the same components as those in FIG.

  7, the information processing unit 10 includes an application program execution unit 6 and a process monitoring unit 7 in addition to the configuration shown in FIG. The storage unit 20 includes a process activation procedure storage unit 24, a process operation pattern storage unit 25, and a process memory demand storage unit 26 in addition to the configuration shown in FIG.

  The process activation procedure storage unit 24 stores a process activation procedure.

  The process activation procedure is information for associating a process when another process is activated from a certain process. At this time, there may be a plurality of associations from one process to another. These associations are set using the identification information of each process. Hereinafter, another process started from a certain process is referred to as a subsequent process.

  The process operation pattern storage unit (abbreviated as operation storage unit) 25 stores pattern information that associates a generation pattern of a system call with a process. Specifically, the pattern information associates a generation pattern of a system call for starting a process of an application program with the identification information of the process for each identification information of the application program. The generation pattern indicates, for example, the order in which system calls are generated.

  The process memory demand storage unit (abbreviated as process demand storage unit) 26 is stored as demand information for each process (for each process identification information) that associates an amount of memory necessary for the operation of the process.

  The amount of memory necessary for the operation of this process may be obtained from the amount of memory used for the operation of the process activated in the past, or may be set in advance by the designer or user of the application program.

  The application program execution unit (abbreviated as execution unit) 6 is realized by executing an application program installed in a computer system.

  When the execution unit 6 receives an execution request to execute a certain function, the execution unit 6 generates a system call corresponding to the function requested by the execution request. Here, the execution unit 6 may receive an execution request from an input device of the computer system, or may be received from a CPU that operates according to another application program or OS installed in the computer system.

  The process monitoring unit 7 analyzes the system call generation pattern generated by the execution unit 6. For example, the process monitoring unit 7 analyzes the order of system calls generated by the execution unit 6.

  The process monitoring unit 7 selects from the operation storage unit 25 the process identification information that is associated with the identification information of the application program selected by the selection unit 1 and that is associated with the analyzed system call generation pattern. .

  When selecting the process identification information, the process monitoring unit 7 selects the identification information of the subsequent process associated with the process identification information from the process activation procedure storage unit 24. The process monitoring unit 7 selects the identification information of the plurality of subsequent processes when the identification information of the plurality of subsequent processes is associated with the identification information of the process selected from the operation storage unit 25.

  The estimation unit 4 selects the necessary memory amount associated with the identification information of the subsequent process selected by the process monitoring unit 7 from the process demand storage unit 26. When the process monitoring unit 7 selects identification information of a plurality of subsequent processes, the estimation unit 4 selects the most necessary amount of memory associated with each of the identification information of the plurality of subsequent processes. A large memory amount is selected from the process demand storage unit 26.

  Next, the operation will be described.

  First, a description will be given of a change in the operation of securing a free area having a memory amount necessary for starting the subsequent application program described in the first embodiment (FIG. 3).

  In step A2 in FIG. 3, the monitoring unit 3 sends the identification information of the application program to the estimation unit 4, but in this embodiment, sends the identification information of the application program to the process monitoring unit 7.

  When the process monitoring unit 7 receives the identification information of the application program, the process monitoring unit 7 sends the identification information of the application program to the estimation unit 4. At this time, the process monitoring unit 7 holds the identification information of the application program.

  When the estimation unit 4 receives the identification information of the subsequent application program, the estimation unit 4 executes Step A3. Thereafter, steps A3 to A5 in FIG. 3 are executed.

  Next, an operation for securing a free area in the subsequent process will be described.

  FIG. 8 is a flowchart for explaining an operation of securing a free area having a memory amount necessary for the operation of the subsequent process. In FIG. 8, the same processes as those in FIG. 3 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

  The execution part 6 will perform step C1, if an execution request is received.

  In Step C1, the execution unit 6 generates a system call corresponding to the function requested by the execution request, and sends the system call to the process monitoring unit 7 and the CPU operating according to the OS.

  When the CPU receives the system call, the CPU performs processing according to the system call.

  When receiving the system call, the process monitoring unit 7 executes Step C2.

  In step C2, the process monitoring unit 7 analyzes the system call generation pattern. When the process monitoring unit 7 analyzes the generation pattern, the process monitoring unit 7 executes Step C3.

  In step C3, the process monitoring unit 7 stores the process identification information associated with the identification information of the held application program and associated with the analyzed system call generation pattern from the operation storage unit 25. select. When selecting the process identification information, the process monitoring unit 7 executes Step C4.

  In step C4, the process monitoring unit 7 selects the identification information of the subsequent process associated with the identification information of the process from the process activation procedure storage unit 24, and sends the identification information of the selected subsequent process to the estimation unit 4. .

  The process monitoring unit 7 selects the identification information of the plurality of subsequent processes when the identification information of the plurality of subsequent processes is associated with the identification information of the process. The identification information is sent to the estimation unit 4.

  When the estimation unit 4 receives the identification information of the subsequent process, the estimation unit 4 executes Step C5.

  In step C <b> 5, the estimation unit 4 selects a necessary memory amount associated with the identification information of the subsequent process from the process demand storage unit 26. When the estimation unit 4 receives the identification information of a plurality of subsequent processes from the process monitoring unit 7, the estimation unit 4 has the largest memory amount out of a plurality of necessary memory amounts associated with each of the plurality of subsequent processes. Is selected from the process demand storage unit 26. When the estimation unit 4 selects a necessary memory amount, the estimation unit 4 executes Step A4. Thereafter, steps A4 and A5 are executed.

  Next, the effect will be described.

  According to the present embodiment, the operation storage unit 25 stores a generation pattern of a system call for generating a process in association with identification information of the process. The process activation procedure storage unit 24 stores the process identification information in association with the identification information of the subsequent process activated from the process. The process demand storage unit 26 stores the identification information of the subsequent process in association with the memory amount necessary for the operation of the subsequent process.

  The execution unit 6 generates a system call. The process monitoring unit 7 analyzes the generation pattern of the system call generated by the execution unit 6 and selects the process identification information associated with the generated generation pattern from the operation storage unit 25. The estimation unit 4 selects the necessary memory amount associated with the process identification information selected by the process monitoring unit 7 from the process demand storage unit 26. The estimation unit 4 determines whether or not the free area is larger than the selected necessary memory amount. The management unit 51 secures an area in the memory 30 until the estimation unit 4 uses the free area to the required memory amount.

  For this reason, before the subsequent process is generated, it is possible to secure an amount of memory necessary for the operation of the subsequent process. Therefore, when an application program process is started, a free memory area necessary for the operation of the application program process is secured in advance, so that a free memory area is easily secured, and subsequent processes are generated quickly. It becomes possible. Therefore, the application program can be activated quickly.

  Next, a memory management device according to a fourth embodiment will be described.

  FIG. 9 is a block diagram showing the configuration of the memory management device according to the fourth embodiment. Hereinafter, a configuration different from FIGS. 1 and 7 will be mainly described. In FIG. 9, the same components as those in FIG.

  In FIG. 9, the information processing unit 10 has the same configuration as that shown in FIG. The storage unit 20 has a configuration in which the operation storage unit 25 is excluded from the configuration illustrated in FIG.

  When the execution unit 6 receives an execution request from an input device of the computer system, the execution unit 6 sends process identification information corresponding to the function requested by the execution request to the process monitoring unit 7.

  When receiving the process identification information from the execution unit 6, the process monitoring unit 7 selects the identification information of the subsequent process associated with the process identification information from the process activation procedure storage unit 24.

  Next, the operation will be described.

  FIG. 10 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the memory management device according to the fourth embodiment. In FIG. 10, the same processes as those in FIG. 8 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

  The execution part 6 will perform step C7, if an execution request is received.

  In step C <b> 7, the execution unit 6 sends process identification information corresponding to the function requested by the execution request to the process monitoring unit 7.

  When the process monitoring unit 7 receives the identification information of the process, the process monitoring unit 7 executes Step C4. Thereafter, steps C4, C5, A4 and A5 are executed.

  Next, the effect will be described.

  When receiving an execution request for executing a function, the execution unit 6 sends process identification information corresponding to the function to the process monitoring unit 7. The process monitoring unit 7 selects the identification information of the succeeding process associated with the identification information of the sent process from the process activation procedure storage unit 24. The estimation unit 4 selects the necessary memory amount associated with the process identification information selected by the process monitoring unit 7 from the process demand storage unit 26.

  In this case, process identification information corresponding to the function requested to be executed is sent from the execution unit 6. Further, the identification information of the subsequent process associated with the identification information of the process is selected.

  For this reason, even if the system call generation pattern is not analyzed, it is possible to reduce the memory area secured when the application program is activated. Therefore, the application program can be activated more quickly.

  As a first example, a computer system incorporating the memory management device of the first embodiment will be described. Hereinafter, the computer system will be described as a mobile phone, but the computer system is not limited to the mobile phone and can be changed as appropriate.

  FIG. 11 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the mobile phone according to the first embodiment.

  In FIG. 11, the mobile phone includes a communication processing unit 41, a display 42, a keyboard 43, a hard disk drive (abbreviated as HDD) 44, a memory 45, and a CPU 46.

  The communication processing unit 41 performs wireless communication such as telephone communication. The display 42 displays various information. The keyboard 43 receives various information from the user. For example, the keyboard 43 receives an activation request from the user.

  The HDD 44 stores various information. The HDD 44 is used as a swap device for storing swapped out data.

  The memory 45 and the CPU 46 constitute a memory management device. The memory 45 corresponds to the storage unit 20 shown in FIG. 1, and the CPU 46 corresponds to the information processing unit 10 shown in FIG.

  FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the memory 45 and the CPU 46.

  The memory 45 is a recording medium that can be read by the CPU 46, and records a program that defines the operation of the CPU 46.

  The memory 45 includes a startup procedure storage unit 1021, a demand storage unit 1022, and a specific storage unit 1023.

  Each of the startup procedure storage unit 1021, the demand storage unit 1022, and the specific storage unit 1023 has functions equivalent to the startup procedure storage unit 21, the demand storage unit 22, and the specific storage unit 23 illustrated in FIG. Is omitted.

  The startup procedure, demand information, and specific information are stored in the HDD 44. When the mobile phone starts up, the CPU 46 acquires the startup procedure, demand information, and specific information from the HDD 44, and the startup procedure is stored in the startup procedure storage unit 1021. The demand information is stored in the demand storage unit 1022, and the specific information is stored in the specific storage unit 1023. The amount of memory required for starting each application program of demand information is determined by the developer of the application program, and is stored in the HDD 44 in association with the identification information when the application program is introduced into the mobile phone. .

  The CPU 46 reads a program recorded in the memory 45 and executes the read program to realize a function equivalent to that of the information processing unit 10 in FIG. Specifically, the CPU 46 implements an application launcher unit 1001, a control unit 1002, a monitoring unit 1003, an estimation unit 1004, and an OS execution unit 1005.

  The application launcher unit (abbreviated as launcher unit) 1001, the control unit 1002, the monitoring unit 1003, and the estimation unit 1004 are preferably realized by executing middleware. In addition, the launcher unit 1001, the control unit 1002, the monitoring unit 1003, and the estimation unit 1004 operate in the user mode.

  Note that each of the launcher unit 1001, the control unit 1002, the monitoring unit 1003, and the estimation unit 1004 has functions equivalent to the selection unit 1, the control unit 2, the monitoring unit 3, and the estimation unit 4 illustrated in FIG. Detailed description will be omitted.

  The OS execution unit 1005 is realized by executing the OS. The OS is desirably a Linux system or a Unix system, but is not limited to a Linux system or a Unix system, and can be changed as appropriate.

  The OS execution unit 1005 includes a memory manager 1051 and a control module 1052. The memory manager 1051 includes a swap processing unit 1511.

  The control module 1052 receives a reservation request from the estimation unit 1004 and converts the reservation request into a format that can be recognized by the memory manager 1051. The control module 1052 sends a reservation request whose format has been converted to the memory manager 1051.

  Since each of the memory manager 1051 and the swap processing unit 1511 has the same functions as the management unit 51 and the swap processing unit 511 shown in FIG.

Next, an example of a procedure for starting an application program for a mobile phone will be described. FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an example of a procedure for starting an application program for a mobile phone. FIG. 13 shows a tree showing the startup procedure of the application program. Nodes 601 to 608 indicate application programs. It should be noted that the lower part of each of the nodes 601 to 608 shows the amount of memory necessary for starting the application program indicated by the node.

  FIG. 14 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the relationship between an application program and the amount of memory required to start the application program.

  FIG. 14 shows the application name, ID, and consumed memory amount. The application name indicates the name of the application program. ID indicates identification information of the application program. The consumed memory amount indicates the amount of memory required for starting the application program.

  It is assumed that the OS execution unit 1005 is set to send a start request to start the “menu 1” to the launcher unit 1001 when the mobile phone starts up.

  Upon receiving the activation request, the launcher unit 1001 selects the identification information “ID1” of the application program associated with the application program requested by the activation request from the specific storage unit 1023.

  The monitoring unit 1003 identifies the identification information “ID2” of “Mail”, the identification information “ID3” of “Menu 2”, and the identification of “Browser” associated with the identification information “ID1” of the selected application program. Information "ID4" is selected.

  The estimation unit 1004 selects the largest memory amount from the demand storage unit 1022 from among a plurality of necessary memory amounts associated with the selected identification information “ID2”, “ID3”, and “ID4”, respectively. . In this case, since the memory amount “4 MB” required for starting the “browser” is the largest, the estimation unit 1004 selects the necessary memory amount “4 MB”.

  The memory manager 1051 secures a free area in the memory 45 until the required memory amount becomes “4 MB”.

  Thereafter, when the user selects “mail” using the keyboard 43, the keyboard 43 sends an activation request to activate the “mail” to the launcher unit 1001.

  When the launcher unit 1001 accepts the activation request, the launcher unit 1001 selects the identification information “ID2” associated with the “mail” requested in the activation request from the specific storage unit 1023.

  In this case, the monitoring unit 1003 determines that there is no subsequent application program activated from “mail”, and ends the operation.

  When the user selects “menu 2” using the keyboard 43, the keyboard 43 sends an activation request to activate the “menu 2” to the launcher unit 1001.

  Upon receiving the activation request, the launcher unit 1001 selects identification information “ID3” associated with “menu 2” requested in the activation request from the specific storage unit 1023.

  The monitoring unit 1003 selects the identification information “ID5” of “menu 3” and the identification information “ID6” of “game” associated with the identification information “ID3” from the startup procedure storage unit 1021.

  The estimation unit 1004 selects the largest memory amount from the demand storage unit 1022 from among a plurality of necessary memory amounts associated with the identification information “ID5” and “ID6”. In this case, since the memory amount “10 MB” required for starting the “game” is the largest, the estimation unit 1004 selects the necessary memory amount “10 MB”.

  The memory manager 1051 secures a free area in the memory 45 until the necessary memory amount becomes “10 MB”.

  Thereafter, when the user selects “menu 3” using the keyboard 43, the keyboard 43 sends an activation request to activate the “menu 3” to the launcher unit 1001.

  The launcher unit 1001 selects identification information “ID5” associated with “menu 3” requested by the activation request from the specific storage unit 1023.

  The monitoring unit 1003 selects the identification information “ID7” of “voice memo” and the identification information “ID8” of “music playback” associated with the identification information “ID5” from the startup procedure storage unit 1021.

  The estimation unit 1004 selects the largest memory amount from the demand storage unit 1022 from among a plurality of necessary memory amounts associated with the identification information “ID7” and “ID8”. In this case, since the memory amount “4 MB” required for starting “music playback” is the largest, the estimation unit 1004 selects the necessary memory amount “4 MB”.

  Next, the operation will be described.

  FIG. 15 is a flowchart for explaining an example of the operation of the mobile phone. Hereinafter, a case where the user selects the application program “browser” while “menu 1” is activated will be described as an example.

  In step B <b> 1, the launcher unit 1001 receives an activation request to activate “browser”, and selects identification information “ID4” associated with the “browser” from the specific storage unit 1023. The selection unit 1 sends the identification information “ID4” to the control unit 1002 and the monitoring unit 1003.

  Upon receipt of the identification information “ID4”, the control unit 1002 generates a process execution request for starting and executing the process constituting the “browser” specified by the identification information “ID4”. An execution request is sent to the OS execution unit 1005.

  Note that the control unit 1002 holds the identification information “ID1” of “menu 1” received before the identification information “ID4” of “browser”. This is because the control unit 1002 issues a process execution request for starting and executing a process constituting “menu 1” so that “menu 1” is started when “browser” is terminated. This is because it is sent to the section 1005.

  When the OS execution unit 1005 accepts the process execution request, the OS execution unit 1005 starts and executes the process according to the process execution request.

  Upon receiving the identification information, monitoring unit 1003 executes step B2.

  In step B2, the monitoring unit 1003 selects the identification information “ID8” of “music playback” associated with the identification information “ID4” of the “browser” from the startup procedure storage unit 1021, and identifies the subsequent application program The information “ID8” is sent to the estimation unit 1004. Upon receiving the identification information “ID8” of the subsequent application program, the estimation unit 1004 executes Step B3.

  In step B <b> 3, the estimation unit 1004 selects the required memory amount “4 MB” associated with the identification information “ID8” of the subsequent application program from the demand storage unit 1022.

  In step B <b> 4, the estimation unit 1004 checks the free area in the memory 45. For example, the estimation unit 1004 checks the free area of the memory 45 using the “/ proc file system”.

  When the estimation unit 1004 examines the free area of the memory 45, the estimation unit 1004 determines whether the free area is larger than the necessary memory amount. The estimation unit 1004 executes Step B5 when the free area is smaller than the necessary memory amount, and ends the operation when the free area is larger than the necessary memory amount.

  In step B <b> 5, the estimation unit 1004 generates a securing request for securing a free area and sends the securing request to the control module 1052.

  The control module 1052 receives the reservation request and converts the reservation request into a format that can be recognized by the memory manager 1051. The control module 1052 sends a reservation request whose format has been converted to the memory manager 1051.

  When accepting the reservation request, the memory manager 1051 sends a swap request to the swap processing unit 1511.

  At this time, the memory manager 1051 may try to release an unnecessary candidate memory area in the memory 45 before sending a swap-out request. In this case, the memory manager 1051 sends a swap-out request when the necessary memory amount is not ensured by releasing the unnecessary candidate memory area.

  When the swap processing unit 1511 receives the swap-out request, the swap processing unit 1511 swaps out the data in the unnecessary candidate memory area of the memory 45 to the HDD 44 until a necessary memory amount is secured.

  After swapping out unnecessary candidate data, the swap processing unit 1511 sends a notification that the swap-out has been completed to the estimation unit 1004. When the estimation unit 1004 accepts that fact, the estimation unit 1004 executes Step B4.

  Next, a mobile phone incorporating the memory management device of the second embodiment will be described as a second example.

  FIG. 16 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the mobile phone according to the second embodiment. Hereinafter, a configuration different from that in FIG. 11 will be mainly described. In FIG. 16, the same components as those in FIG. 11 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

  In FIG. 16, the mobile phone includes a flash memory 47 instead of the HDD 44. Note that other configurations of the mobile phone are the same as those in FIG.

  The flash memory 47 is generally smaller than the HDD 44, has a high read / write speed, and has high impact resistance. For this reason, the flash memory 47 is suitable as a data storage means in the mobile phone. However, the flash memory 47 is not suitable for a swap device because of low rewrite endurance.

  FIG. 17 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the memory 45 and the CPU 46 of this mobile phone. Hereinafter, a configuration different from that in FIG. 12 will be mainly described. In FIG. 17, the same components as those in FIG.

  In FIG. 17, the memory 45 has the same configuration as that shown in FIG. In the CPU 46, the memory manager 1051 includes a garbage collector 1512 instead of the swap processing unit 1511. The other configuration of the CPU 46 is the same as the configuration shown in FIG.

  Since the garbage collector 1512 has a function equivalent to that of the organizing unit 512, the description of the garbage collector 1512 is omitted.

  Next, a mobile phone incorporating the memory management device of the third embodiment will be described as a third example.

  The mobile phone of the third embodiment has the same configuration as the mobile phone shown in FIG.

  FIG. 18 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the memory 45 and the CPU 46 of the mobile phone according to the third embodiment. Hereinafter, a configuration different from FIG. 12 will be mainly described. In FIG. 18, the same components as those in FIG.

  18, the memory 45 includes a process activation procedure storage unit 1024, an operation storage unit 1025, and a process demand storage unit 1026 in addition to the configuration illustrated in FIG. The CPU 46 includes an application execution unit 1006 and a process monitoring unit 1007 in addition to the configuration shown in FIG.

  The process startup procedure, pattern information, and process demand information are stored in the HDD 44. When the mobile phone starts up, the CPU 46 acquires the process startup procedure, pattern information, and process demand information from the HDD 44, and starts the process. The procedure is stored in the process activation procedure storage unit 1024, the pattern information is stored in the operation storage unit 1025, and the process demand information is stored in the process demand storage unit 1026. In addition, the amount of memory required for the operation of each process in the process demand information is determined by the application program developer of the process, and is associated with the process identification information when the application program is installed in the mobile phone. Stored in the HDD 44.

  The process activation procedure storage unit 1024, the operation storage unit 1025, and the process demand storage unit 1026 have functions equivalent to those of the process activation procedure storage unit 24, the operation storage unit 25, and the process demand storage unit 26 illustrated in FIG. Description thereof is omitted. The application execution unit (execution unit) 1006 and the process monitoring unit 1007 have the same functions as the execution unit 6 and the process monitoring unit 7 shown in FIG.

Next, an example of a procedure for starting a cellular phone process will be described. FIG. 19 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an example of a procedure for starting a cellular phone process. In FIG. 19, the same components as those in FIG. 13 are denoted by the same reference numerals. In addition, in the node 602 indicating the application program “mail”, a tree indicating a process starting procedure executed by “mail” is shown. Nodes 611 to 615 represent processes. Note that the lower part of each of the nodes 611 to 615 shows the amount of memory necessary for the operation of the process indicated by the node.

  FIG. 20 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the relationship between a process and the amount of memory necessary for the operation of the process.

  FIG. 20 shows a function name, a function ID, and a memory consumption amount. The function name indicates the name of the function. The function ID indicates identification information of the function. The consumed memory amount indicates the amount of memory necessary for the operation of the function.

  In this embodiment, it is assumed that one process corresponds to one function. In this case, the function ID is process identification information, and the consumed memory amount indicates a memory amount necessary for the operation of the process corresponding to the function.

  If the user selects “function menu 1” using the keyboard 43 while the application program “mail” is running, the keyboard 43 sends an execution request to the execution unit 1006 to execute “function menu 1”. .

  When the execution unit 1006 receives the execution request, the execution unit 1006 generates a system call corresponding to “function menu 1”.

  The process monitoring unit 1007 analyzes the system call generation pattern generated by the execution unit 1006. The process monitoring unit 1007 stores the identification information “function ID1” of “function menu 1” associated with the identification information of the application program “mail” and the generation pattern of the analyzed system call. The part 1025 is selected.

  The process monitoring unit 1007 receives the identification information “function ID 2” of “reply” and the identification information “function ID 3” of “function menu 2” associated with the identification information “function ID 1” of the “function menu 1”. A selection is made from the process startup procedure storage unit 24.

  The estimation unit 1004 selects the largest memory amount from the process demand storage unit 1026 from among a plurality of necessary memory amounts associated with the identification information “function ID 2” and “function ID 3”. In this case, since the memory amount “100 kB” required for the “reply” operation is the largest, the estimation unit 1004 selects the necessary memory amount “100 kB”.

  The memory manager 1051 reserves a free area in the memory 45 until the selected memory amount becomes “100 kB”.

  Thereafter, when the user selects “Reply” using the keyboard 43, the keyboard 43 sends an execution request for executing “Reply” to the execution unit 1006.

  When the execution unit 1006 receives the execution request, the execution unit 1006 generates a system call corresponding to the “reply”.

  The process monitoring unit 1007 analyzes the system call generation pattern generated by the execution unit 1006. The process monitoring unit 1007 selects process identification information “function ID2” associated with the identification information of the application program “mail” and associated with the analyzed system call generation pattern.

  In this case, the process monitoring unit 1007 determines that there is no subsequent process activated from “reply”, and ends the operation.

  On the other hand, when the user selects “function menu 2” using the keyboard 43, the keyboard 43 sends an execution request to the execution unit 1006 to execute “function menu 2”.

  When the execution unit 1006 receives the execution request, the execution unit 1006 generates a system call corresponding to “function menu 2”.

  The process monitoring unit 1007 analyzes the system call generation pattern generated by the execution unit 1006. The process monitoring unit 1007 operates the process identification information “function ID3” associated with the identification information of the application program “mail” and associated with the generation pattern of the system call generated by the execution unit 1006. A selection is made from the storage unit 1025.

  The process monitoring unit 1007 stores the identification information “function ID 4” of “quote reply” and the identification information “function ID 5” of “reply with image” associated with the identification information “function ID 3” in the process activation procedure storage. Select from section 1024.

  The estimation unit 1004 selects the largest memory amount from the process demand storage unit 1026 from among a plurality of necessary memory amounts associated with the identification information “function ID 4” and “function ID 5”. In this case, since the memory amount “200 kB” required for starting “reply with image” is the largest, the estimation unit 1004 selects the necessary memory amount “200 kB”.

  The memory manager 1051 secures a free area in the memory 45 until the selected memory amount becomes “200 kB”.

  Next, the operation will be described.

  FIG. 21 is a flowchart for explaining an example of the operation of the mobile phone. Hereinafter, a case where the user selects the application program “quote reply” using the keyboard 43 in a state where the “function menu 2” is activated will be described as an example.

  When the user selects “quote reply” using the keyboard 43, the keyboard 43 sends an execution request to the execution unit 1006 to execute “quote reply”. When the execution unit 1006 receives the execution request, the execution unit 1006 executes Step D1.

  In step D1, the execution unit 1006 generates a system call corresponding to the “quote reply” and sends the system call to the process monitoring unit 1007 and the OS execution unit 1005.

  When the OS execution unit 1005 receives the system call, the OS execution unit 1005 performs processing according to the system call.

  When the process monitoring unit 1007 receives the system call, the process monitoring unit 1007 executes Step D2.

  In step D2, the process monitoring unit 1007 analyzes the system call generation pattern. When the process monitoring unit 1007 analyzes the generation pattern, the process monitoring unit 1007 executes Step D3.

  In step D3, the process monitoring unit 1007 obtains process identification information associated with the identification information of the held application program and associated with the analyzed system call generation pattern from the operation storage unit 1025. select. When selecting the process identification information, the process monitoring unit 1007 executes Step D4.

  In step D4, the process monitoring unit 1007 selects the identification information of the subsequent process associated with the identification information of the process from the process activation procedure storage unit 1024, and sends the identification information of the selected process to the estimation unit 1004. When the estimation unit 1004 receives the identification information of the process, the estimation unit 1004 executes Step D5.

  In step D5, the estimation unit 1004 selects a necessary memory amount associated with the process identification information from the process demand storage unit 1026. When the estimation unit 1004 selects a memory amount as necessary, the estimation unit 1004 executes Step B4. Thereafter, steps B4 and B5 are executed.

  Next, a mobile phone incorporating the memory management device of the fourth embodiment will be described as a fourth example.

  The mobile phone of the fourth embodiment has the same configuration as the mobile phone shown in FIG.

  FIG. 22 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the memory 45 and the CPU 46 of the mobile phone according to the fourth embodiment. Hereinafter, a configuration different from FIG. 18 will be mainly described. In FIG. 22, the same components as those in FIG. 18 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

  22, the memory 45 has a configuration in which the operation storage unit 1025 is excluded from the configuration illustrated in FIG. 18. The CPU 46 has the same configuration as FIG.

  Next, the operation will be described.

  FIG. 23 is a flowchart for explaining an example of the operation of the mobile phone according to the fourth embodiment. In FIG. 23, the same processes as those in FIG. 21 are denoted by the same reference numerals.

  When the user selects a function using the keyboard 43, the keyboard 43 sends an execution request for executing the function to the execution unit 1006. When receiving the execution request, the execution unit 1006 executes Step D7.

  In step D7, the execution unit 1006 sends process identification information corresponding to the function requested in the execution request to the process monitoring unit 1007 and the control unit 1002.

  Upon receiving the process identification information, the control unit 1002 generates a process execution request for starting and executing the process, and sends the process execution request to the OS execution unit 1005.

  When the OS execution unit 1005 accepts the process execution request, the OS execution unit 1005 starts and executes the process according to the process execution request.

  In addition, when receiving the identification information, the process monitoring unit 1007 executes Step D4. Thereafter, steps D4, D6, B4 and B5 are executed.

  In each embodiment and each example described above, the illustrated configuration is merely an example, and the present invention is not limited to the configuration.

  For example, the present invention can be applied to an embedded system in which an application program startup procedure is defined.

It is the block diagram which showed the structure of the memory management apparatus of 1st embodiment of this invention. It is explanatory drawing which showed an example of the starting procedure of an application program. It is a flowchart for demonstrating operation | movement of the memory management apparatus of 1st embodiment of this invention. It is the block diagram which showed the structure of the memory management apparatus of 2nd embodiment of this invention. It is the schematic diagram which showed an example of the memory area. It is a flowchart for demonstrating operation | movement of the memory management apparatus of 2nd embodiment of this invention. It is the block diagram which showed the structure of the memory management apparatus of 3rd embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating operation | movement of the memory management apparatus of 3rd embodiment of this invention. It is the block diagram which showed the structure of the memory management apparatus of 4th embodiment of this invention. It is a flowchart for demonstrating operation | movement of the memory management apparatus of 4th embodiment of this invention. It is the block diagram which showed an example of the structure of a mobile telephone. It is the block diagram which showed the structure of memory and CPU of a 1st Example. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating an example of the starting procedure of the application program of a mobile telephone. It is explanatory drawing which showed an example of the relationship between an application program and required memory amount. It is a flowchart for demonstrating operation | movement of the mobile telephone of a 1st Example. It is the block diagram which showed the other example of the structure of the mobile telephone. It is the block diagram which showed the structure of memory and CPU of a 2nd Example. It is the block diagram which showed the structure of the memory and CPU of a 3rd Example. It is explanatory drawing for demonstrating an example of the starting procedure of the process of a mobile telephone. It is explanatory drawing which showed an example of the relationship between a function and required memory amount. It is a flowchart for demonstrating operation | movement of the mobile telephone of a 3rd Example. It is the block diagram which showed the structure of memory and CPU of a 4th Example. It is a flowchart for demonstrating operation | movement of the mobile telephone of a 4th Example.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Application selection part 2 Application control part 3 Application monitoring part 4 Memory estimation part 6 Application program execution part 7 Process monitoring part 10 Information processing part 21 Application starting procedure memory | storage part 22 Application memory demand memory | storage part 23 Application specific memory | storage part 24 Process starting procedure Storage unit 25 Process operation pattern storage unit 26 Process memory demand storage unit 30 Memory 41 Communication processing unit 42 Display 43 Keyboard 44 HDD
45 memory 46 CPU
47 Flash memory 51 Management unit 511 Swap processing unit 512 Memory organization / recovery unit

Claims (11)

A memory management unit to ensure the amount of memory required to start the application program,
Memory,
A specific storage unit that stores an application program and identification information of the application program in association with each other;
An activation procedure storage unit that stores the identification information of the application program and the identification information of another application program activated from the application program in association with each other;
A demand storage unit that stores the identification information of the other application program in association with the amount of memory required to start the other application program;
A selection unit that accepts an activation request to activate the application program, and selects identification information associated with the application program requested in the activation request from the specific storage unit;
A monitoring unit that selects identification information of the another application program associated with the identification information selected by the selection unit from the startup procedure storage unit;
From the memory amount associated with the identification information selected by the monitoring unit , the largest memory amount is selected from the demand storage unit, and the free area of the memory is checked, and the free area is the selected memory. An estimation unit for determining whether or not the amount is greater than the amount;
And a management unit that reserves a free area in the memory until the free area in the memory reaches the memory amount when the estimation unit determines that the free area is smaller than the memory amount. The memory management device according to claim 1,
An operation storage unit that stores a generation pattern of a system call for starting a process in association with identification information of the process;
A process activation procedure storage unit that stores the identification information of the process in association with identification information of another process activated from the process;
A process demand storage unit that stores the identification information of the another process in association with the amount of memory necessary for the operation of the other process;
An execution unit for generating the system call;
Analyzing the generation pattern of the system call generated by the execution unit, selecting process identification information associated with the generation pattern from the operation storage unit, and then selecting the process call identification information associated with the process identification information. A process monitoring unit that selects identification information of the process from the process activation procedure storage unit,
The estimation unit selects, from the process demand storage unit, a memory amount associated with the process identification information selected by the process monitoring unit, checks a free area of the memory, and the free area is selected. A memory management device for determining whether or not the amount of memory is larger. The memory management device according to claim 1,
A process activation procedure storage unit for storing identification information of a process in association with identification information of another process activated from the process;
A process demand storage unit that stores the identification information of the another process in association with the amount of memory necessary for the operation of the other process;
When an execution request for executing a function is received, an execution unit that sends process identification information corresponding to the function;
A process monitoring unit that selects, from the process startup procedure storage unit, identification information of another process associated with the identification information of the process received from the execution unit,
The estimation unit selects, from the process demand storage unit, a memory amount associated with the process identification information selected by the process monitoring unit, checks a free area of the memory, and the free area is selected. A memory management device for determining whether or not the amount of memory is larger. In the memory management device according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
When the estimation unit determines that the free area is smaller than the memory amount, the management unit swaps out data in the memory until the free area of the memory reaches the memory amount. A memory management device. In the memory management device according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
The estimation unit examines an empty area with consecutive addresses in the memory, determines whether the empty area is larger than the memory amount selected by the estimation unit,
The management unit includes a organizing unit that defragments the memory until the free area where the addresses are continuous is smaller than the memory amount, until the free area where the addresses are continuous reaches the memory amount. Management device. Information associating an application program with identification information of the application program, information associating identification information of the application program with identification information of another application program started from the application program, and the other application the identity of the program to take advantage of the information associated with the amount of memory needed to run the application program the another, a memory management method for ensuring the amount of memory required to start the application program ,
An accepting step of accepting an activation request to activate the application program;
A first selection step of selecting identification information associated with the application program requested in the accepted activation request;
A second selection step of selecting identification information of the another application program associated with the selected identification information;
A third selection step of selecting the largest memory amount from among the memory amounts associated with the identification information of the selected other application programs;
A survey step to examine the free space in the memory;
A determination step of determining whether the examined free area is larger than the selected memory amount;
And a securing step of securing the memory area until the free area of the memory reaches the memory capacity when it is determined that the free area is smaller than the memory capacity. The memory management method according to claim 6.
Information in which a generation pattern of a system call for starting a process is associated with identification information of the process, information in which the identification information of the process is associated with identification information of another process started from the process, Utilizing information that associates the identification information of another process with the amount of memory necessary for the operation of the other process,
A generating step for generating the system call;
An analysis step of analyzing a generation pattern of the system call;
A first process selection step of selecting identification information of a process associated with the analyzed generation pattern;
A second process selection step of selecting identification information of another process associated with the identification information of the selected process;
And a third process selection step of selecting a memory amount associated with the identification information of the selected another process. The memory management method according to claim 6.
Information associating process identification information with identification information of another process started from the process, information associating identification information of the other process with the amount of memory necessary for the operation of the other process, Use
An input step for receiving an execution request to execute the function;
Sending the process identification information according to the function;
A fourth process selection step of selecting identification information of another process associated with the identification information of the sent process;
And a fifth process selection step of selecting a memory amount associated with the identification information of the selected other process. The memory management method according to any one of claims 6 to 8,
The securing step includes a swap-out step of swapping out data in the memory until it is determined that the free area is smaller than the memory amount until the free area of the memory reaches the memory amount. Method. The memory management method according to any one of claims 6 to 8,
In the investigating step, an empty area having continuous addresses in the memory is examined,
The securing step includes a defragmenting step of defragmenting the memory until it is determined that a free area in which the addresses are continuous is smaller than the memory amount, and a free area in which the addresses are continuous becomes the memory amount. Management method.   The program which makes a computer perform the memory management method of any one of Claim 6-10.

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