KSM – Lechuck Park

From Claude with some prompting
This image illustrates Kernel Samepage Merging (KSM), a memory management technique used to optimize memory usage in computing systems.

Key components of the image:

Top left: Icons representing disk/file systems (“almost”) and a memory grid.
Memory grid: Shows memory pages filled with various letters (A-Z). Note the repeated occurrences of ‘A’ pages.
Bottom: Multiple processes (Process1, Process2, Process3, Process4) sharing this memory.
Right side: Explains how KSM works in four stages:
- Searching: Locating pages with identical content.
- Merging: Combining identical pages into one.
- Counting: Tallying references to the merged page.
- Updating: Refreshing page references.

KSM works by identifying and merging memory pages with identical content, thus reducing memory usage. This is particularly useful in virtualized environments where multiple virtual machines might be running similar operating systems.

The image effectively demonstrates how KSM can identify duplicate ‘A’ pages across different memory locations and processes, merging them to save memory space while maintaining proper references for each process.

From DALL-E with some prompting
Kernel Same-page Merging (KSM) is a feature within an operating system’s kernel that enhances memory efficiency by identifying and merging identical memory pages. Typically, this process is beneficial for duplicated pages from executable files and shared libraries, which are common across different processes. KSM is also advantageous in environments where there is a significant amount of shared data and memory-mapped files, such as virtualization systems where multiple virtual machines may be running the same operating system or similar applications. By merging these pages, KSM allows for a reduction in physical memory usage, leading to better memory management and potentially improved performance for the system.