baxter_a@wehi.dn.mu.oz (04/07/91)
Hmmm... Is there a spare bit that could be used to indicate that memory requested could be virtual? Then it could be up to the individual programmer to decide what could reasonably be paged out if needed. Perhaps the default could be that anything in fast RAM could be paged. Then there would be no compatibility problems, since no old programs would be paged, and new programs would only page if safe. The compiler manufacturers could handle the program code paging stuff in the same way they handle resident programs... If you link the right bits and follow the rules, it works, otherwise, code wouldn't page. At the grossest level, this is just an OS supported data store in virtual memory, but with a bit of tinkering could be fairly useful, particularly if the overlay manager was improved, reducing the need to page code. Regards Alan