VIRTUALMEMORY

Virtual memory

In computing, virtual memory is a memory management technique that is implemented using both hardware and software. It maps memory addresses used by a program, called virtual addresses, into physical addresses in computer memory. Main storage as seen by a process or task appears as a contiguous address space or collection of contiguous segments. The operating system manages virtual address spaces and the assignment of real memory to virtual memory. Address translation hardware in the CPU, often referred to as a memory management unit or MMU, automatically translates virtual addresses to physical addresses. Software within the operating ...

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virtual memory

Noun

  1. Memory that appears to be RAM but is being simulated (by a process called paging) on a hard disk; allows a computer to operate as if it had more memory than it actually does, but with some loss of performance


The above text is a snippet from Wiktionary: virtual memory
and as such is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

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