What Is Virtual Memory?

It is a feature of the operating system, virtual memory is a part of the operating system, with the help of which we can run many applications on our computer. If your system’s RAM is low, you can make up for that shortfall by using virtual memory.

Suppose you open more than one application on your system and less RAM of your system does not allow you to open them, then you can overcome this problem with the help of virtual memory.

Virtual memory is helpful in meeting the lack of RAM in the computer. When you open many applications on your system at the same time, then a crash situation arises due to low RAM memory, but virtual memory allows your computer to do this. Provides that it temporarily transfers pages of data from memory RAM to hard disk, the computer sees as OM areas of RAM that are not used recently and copies them to the hard disk, thereby saving RAM Space is freed up and new applications are loaded.

It is the actual memory of the computer that allows the user to work with the extra memory in the system.

This memory is needed as much as RAM and ROM, it is very important to have RAM in the computer to do the work of multiprocessing, multiprocessing means to open many programs or applications simultaneously, like at the same time. This includes the use of programs like web browser, Microsoft Word, Photoshop, Excel, etc.

To run various applications and programs in any computer, the RAM in the computer does that work, every time we open different applications in our system, the space of RAM is filled to run these applications and Sometimes such a situation comes that the RAM space is completely filled by running these applications.

After that no application or software is run on the computer, then the computer uses virtual memory, virtual memory is used for the alternate task of RAM in the computer by taking the space of the computer’s hard disk, that is, virtual memory. Provides a different form of RAM to the computer,

This is completely different from physical RAM, it is different because physical RAM is glued to the computer system which is hardware and virtual memory is software, the function of virtual memory is that if there is less space for RAM in the system than in the computer. That shortcoming can be made up by using virtual memory,

The size of RAM in every computer system is limited, when we open more than one application or file in the computer, the space of RAM gets filled, due to which the speed of the system slows down, and at that time the data of virtual memory RAM is stored on the hard disk. K space, due to which the RAM starts to be free and the computer is able to perform the task in a better way.

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How Virtual Memory Works?:-

When the computer’s RAM space starts getting full, then the computer’s operating system checks the applications and files that we keep open in our system and whatever files or applications remain in the system, that is, the user is not working at that time. But if they remain open at the bottom, the computer transfers all of them to the virtual memory with the help of paging files in RAM.

When data is transferred from physical memory to virtual memory, the operating system divides the program of that application into page files and also associates a fixed number of addresses with each page file, so that the data is transferred. For this, the computer looks at the areas of RAM that have not been used recently and copies them to the virtual memory of the hard disk.

Every page file gets stored in the hard disk, due to which the space of our RAM starts freeing and the application on which the user is currently working runs very well, and with it, new applications are also loaded easily.

When we open those applications which have been kept minimized, then the operating system copies the address of the file which was transferred to the virtual memory of the hard disk back from disk and sends it back to the RAM so that we can access that file. be able to work on programs or applications easily,

The operating system does not load that file into RAM from the hard disk until it is needed, this process increases the size of the RAM in the computer, which reduces the size when running more than one program or application on the computer. The problem of RAM can be got rid of,

Virtual memory is not the physical memory of the computer, but is a technology that allows executing a large program, which cannot be kept entirely in the primary memory ie RAM,

Virtual memory is a part of the operating system itself that helps to complete the work of RAM and all those applications which were not able to access earlier can now be easily done through this memory.

Benefits of virtual memory:-

Opening more than one application in the system at a time can be used without interruption.
V memory can be used in all major operating systems.
It is best for those who do not want to upgrade their computer system but want to work fast.
With virtual memory, we can almost double the RAM of our computer, which increases the speed of the computer more than before.
This allows programmers to write large programs to create applications because virtual memory is much larger than physical memory.
More than one program can be used in this.

The disadvantage of virtual memory:-

It takes more time to swap in and swap out which slows down the system.
Switching between applications also takes more time.
Hard disk is used in virtual memory, due to which there is a shortage of hard disk, which cannot be used again if the user needs more hard disk.

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