Memory management methods and systems

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11513874-B2
Application number	US-202016948787-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 1, 2020
Priority date	Jan 7, 2007
Publication date	Nov 29, 2022
Grant date	Nov 29, 2022

Abstract

A method and an apparatus for determining a usage level of a memory device to notify a running application to perform memory reduction operations selected based on the memory usage level are described. An application calls APIs (Application Programming Interface) integrated with the application codes in the system to perform memory reduction operations. A memory usage level is determined according to a memory usage status received from the kernel of a system. A running application is associated with application priorities ranking multiple running applications statically or dynamically. Selecting memory reduction operations and notifying a running application are based on application priorities. Alternatively, a running application may determine a mode of operation to directly reduce memory usage in response to a notification for reducing memory usage without using API calls to other software.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A machine readable non-transitory storage medium having instructions which, when executed by a machine, cause the machine to perform a method comprising:
determining a usage level of a memory in a device, the usage level based on an amount of memory already in use, wherein the usage level is one of a plurality of usage levels;
selecting one or more applications from a set of applications which are using the memory;
notifying a first group of the selected one or more applications via an API (Application Programming Interface) with a first notification associated with a first requested memory reduction to allow each application in the first group of the selected one or more applications to perform a memory reduction in response to receiving the first notification;
notifying a second group of the selected one or more applications via an API with a second notification associated with a second requested memory reduction that is different than the first requested memory reduction.

2. The medium as in claim 1 wherein the selected one or more applications are selected based on a recency based priority list which is dynamic and wherein the memory reduction operation is optional and wherein the notifying includes providing a notification that includes the usage level and using a callback and wherein the machine uses a memory management system that operates without using virtual pages.

3. The medium as in claim 2 wherein the memory reduction operation includes archiving a state of an application in a condensed format.

4. The medium as in claim 1 wherein the selected one or more applications are selected based on a dynamic priority list and wherein the usage level is a numerical value which is related to the amount of memory already in use that is determined prior to the notifying.

5. The medium as in claim 4 wherein the dynamic priority list includes a set of critical user applications that have a static, high priority.

6. The medium as in claim 1 wherein the plurality of usage levels includes at least some usage levels representing different levels of requested memory reduction.

7. The medium as in claim 6 wherein the first notification includes a callback to call an API and the second notification includes a callback to call an API.

8. The medium as in claim 7 wherein the memory reduction operation is optional.

9. The medium as in claim 8 wherein the memory reduction operation includes archiving a state of an application in a condensed format.

10. The medium as in claim 1 wherein different usage levels represent different ranges of memory in use.

11. The medium as in claim 10 wherein the machine uses a memory management system that operates without using virtual pages.

12. A machine implemented method comprising:
determining a usage level of a memory in a device, the usage level based on an amount of memory already in use, wherein the usage level is one of a plurality of usage levels;
selecting one or more applications from a set of applications which are using the memory;
notifying a first group of the selected one or more applications via an API (Application Programming Interface) with a first notification associated with a first requested memory reduction to allow each application in the first group of the selected one or more applications to perform a memory reduction in response to receiving the first notification;
notifying a second group of the selected one or more applications via an API with a second notification associated with a second requested memory reduction that is different than the first requested memory reduction.

13. The method as in claim 12 wherein the selected one or more applications are selected based on a recency based priority list which is dynamic and wherein the memory reduction operation is optional and wherein the notifying includes providing a notification that includes the usage level and using a callback and wherein the machine uses a memory management system that operates without using virtual pages.

14. The method as in claim 13 wherein the memory reduction operation includes archiving a state of an application in a condensed format.

15. The method as in claim 12 wherein the selected one or more applications are selected based on a dynamic priority list and wherein the usage level is a numerical value which is related to the amount of memory already in use that is determined prior to the notifying.

16. The method as in claim 12 wherein the plurality of usage levels includes at least some usage levels representing different levels of requested memory reduction.

17. The method as in claim 16 wherein the first notification includes a callback to call an API and the second notification includes a callback to call an API.

18. The method as in claim 17 wherein the memory reduction operation is optional.

19. The method as in claim 12 wherein different usage levels represent different amounts of memory in use.

20. The method as in claim 12 wherein the machine uses a memory management system that operates without using virtual pages.

Assignees

• Apple Inc

Inventors

• Watson Matthew G
• Magee James Michael

Classifications

• G06F2209/508

  Monitor · CPC title

• G06F9/542

  Event management; Broadcasting; Multicasting; Notifications · CPC title

• G06F9/5016

  the resource being the memory · CPC title

• G06F9/485 Primary

  Task life-cycle, e.g. stopping, restarting, resuming execution (G06F9/4881 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G06F9/544 Primary

  Buffers; Shared memory; Pipes · CPC title