The Virtual Memory Manager

Week 9 assignment: The Virtual Memory Manager

Daniel Stanley

Dr. Charles Watkins

Strayer University

March 10, 2014

Assignment introduction

Most operating systems use a virtual memory manager (VMM) whose responsibility is to manage the relationship between the virtual organizations of memory as seen by an application with the physical organization of memory from the operating system’s point of view. Virtual memory addresses must be mapped to physical address and vice versa.

The Virtual Memory Manager

Physical memory and virtual memory are two forms of memory used to store data in a computer. Physical memory refers to chips such as Random Access Memory or RAM as it is better known, and storage devices like hard disks or hard drives that are used to store data. Virtual memory is a memory space created by an operating system when the computer does not have enough physical memory to run a program. Virtual memory is created by combining the RAM with hard drive space. Virtual memory allows large programs to run faster when the RAM is not enough.

According to (Martinez 2012) the physical RAM and hard drives in computers that are used to store data are the physical memory of a computer system. In a computer, operating system, application software and data currently used are stored in RAM, so they can be quickly accessed by the CPU. The RAM can be accessed faster than other storage devices like hard disk and CD-ROM. However, data exist in RAM only when the computer is switched on and working. When the power is off, the entire data in RAM is gone and disappears. The operating system and other data are loaded back to RAM from the hard drive when the computer is turned back on. The hard drive is what is termed, as a non-volatile memory or memory that retains data even when it is powered off. It is composed of flat circular disks known as platters which save magnetic data. Data is written to...