Explain the concept of virtual memory in CPU design.

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Explain the concept of virtual memory in CPU design.

Virtual memory is a memory management technique used in CPU design that allows the operating system to use a combination of physical memory (RAM) and secondary storage (usually a hard disk) to effectively increase the available memory for running programs. It works by dividing the virtual address space of a process into smaller units called pages, which are then mapped to physical memory or stored in secondary storage. When a program needs to access a page that is not currently in physical memory, a page fault occurs, and the operating system retrieves the required page from secondary storage and brings it into physical memory. This allows programs to run even if the physical memory is limited, as the operating system can swap pages in and out of physical memory as needed. Virtual memory provides several benefits, including increased memory capacity, memory protection, and efficient memory management.