• Andy Whitcroft's avatar
    [PATCH] sparsemem memory model · d41dee36
    Andy Whitcroft authored
    Sparsemem abstracts the use of discontiguous mem_maps[].  This kind of
    mem_map[] is needed by discontiguous memory machines (like in the old
    CONFIG_DISCONTIGMEM case) as well as memory hotplug systems.  Sparsemem
    replaces DISCONTIGMEM when enabled, and it is hoped that it can eventually
    become a complete replacement.
    
    A significant advantage over DISCONTIGMEM is that it's completely separated
    from CONFIG_NUMA.  When producing this patch, it became apparent in that NUMA
    and DISCONTIG are often confused.
    
    Another advantage is that sparse doesn't require each NUMA node's ranges to be
    contiguous.  It can handle overlapping ranges between nodes with no problems,
    where DISCONTIGMEM currently throws away that memory.
    
    Sparsemem uses an array to provide different pfn_to_page() translations for
    each SECTION_SIZE area of physical memory.  This is what allows the mem_map[]
    to be chopped up.
    
    In order to do quick pfn_to_page() operations, the section number of the page
    is encoded in pag...
    d41dee36
Kconfig 2.74 KB