Question: Explain the concept of virtual memory. How does it enable processes to run as if they have a large, contiguous memory space? What are the
- Explain the concept of virtual memory. How does it enable processes to run as if they have a large, contiguous memory space? What are the roles of page tables and TLBs in this context ?
Step by Step Solution
There are 3 Steps involved in it
Virtual memory is a memory management technique used by operating systems to provide an illusion of a larger and contiguous memory space than physically available in the systems RAM It allows processes to run as if they have access to a large contiguous memory space even though physical RAM may be limited Heres how it works Virtual Memory Address Space Each process is given its own virtual memory address space which is a range of memory addresses that it can use This address space is typically much larger than the physical RAM available in the system Page Table The operating system divides the virtual memory space into smaller fixedsize chunks called pages Similarly the physical memory RAM is also divided into pagesized chunks The page table is a data structure maintained by the operating system that maps virtual memory addresses to physical memory addresses When a process accesses a memory location in its virtual address space the page table is consulted to translate the virtual address to a physical address Page Faults Not all pages of a process are loaded into physical memory at once Instead only the pages that are currently needed are loaded When a process tries to access a page that is not currently in physical ... View full answer
Get step-by-step solutions from verified subject matter experts
