A VAX/VMS mapped section/virtual memory utility package: Yucca Mountain Project

A VAX/VMS Mapped Section/Virtual Memory Utility Package is a collection of FORTRAN subprograms that allocate virtual memory and, optionally, map that memory to a file. The subprograms use VMS system services and run-time libraries for allocating and mapping memory; therefore, the utility package is system dependent and functional on that platform only. FORTRAN-77 is one of the most widely used languages for computer programming. Languages have been developed in the past few decades that provide more powerful tools than FORTRAN and overcome some of its limitations. Two limitations addressed by this paper which have been a source of frustration to many programmers are that (1) FORTRAN does not provide dynamic array allocation and (2) FORTRAN file input-output is very slow. The solutions presented here are for the VAX/VMS operating system and use system services that are not part of the standard FORTRAN language description. Also discussed in this paper are dynamic array allocation, mapped sections of the program memory, and support modules. 3 refs