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Work in Progress: A Visualization Aid for Learning Virtual Memory Concepts

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Conference

2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Minneapolis, MN

Publication Date

August 23, 2022

Start Date

June 26, 2022

End Date

June 29, 2022

Conference Session

Computers in Education Division Poster Session

Page Count

11

DOI

10.18260/1-2--40560

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/40560

Download Count

538

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Paper Authors

biography

John Nestor Lafayette College

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John Nestor is a Professor of Electrical Engineering at Lafayette College. He received the Ph. D. and MSEE degrees from Carnegie Mellon and the BEE degree from Georgia Tech. Prior to joining Lafayette, he was a faculty member at Illinois Institute of Technology. His interests include computer engineering, digital design, VLSI, engineering education, and the history of semiconductors and computers.

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biography

Zheping Yin Lafayette College

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Zheping Yin is a Senior undergraduate student at Lafayette College. His research interests are computer engineering and VLSI design.

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Abstract

Virtual memory is a key feature in modern computer systems. A virtual memory system simulates a memory with a large virtual address space using a smaller physical memory coupled with a backing store such as a disk drive. Virtual memory employs a combination of processor hardware and operating systems software to translate virtual addresses to physical addresses and manage the movement of data between physical memory and disk. Virtual memory is a complex topic which students can find difficult to understand using the static diagrams found in textbooks and lecture notes.

This paper describes an interactive graphical tool called VMV (Virtual Memory Visualization) that is intended to improve student understanding of the underlying concepts and operation of virtual memory. VMV uses animated diagrams to illustrate the organization and operation of a virtual memory system on a step-by-step basis. It supports multiple configurations that can be used emphasize the different roles of hardware and software during different operations. The source code for VMV is available at (https://github.com/tobeadded).

VMV is being used this semester in a sophomore-level computer organization and architecture course. We developed a set of case studies using lectures and student exercises that focus on basic page translation, page faults, handling memory writes, and using a translation lookaside buffer (TLB). The effectiveness of these case studies will be assessed using a combination of pre/post quizzes, exam problems, and a student survey.

Nestor, J., & Yin, Z. (2022, August), Work in Progress: A Visualization Aid for Learning Virtual Memory Concepts Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40560

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