What is the purpose of the memory manager in an operating system?

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What is the purpose of the memory manager in an operating system?

The purpose of the memory manager in an operating system is to manage and allocate the computer's physical memory resources efficiently. It is responsible for keeping track of which parts of memory are currently in use and which parts are available for allocation. The memory manager ensures that each process or program running on the computer has enough memory to execute properly and prevents processes from accessing memory that does not belong to them. It also handles memory allocation and deallocation, allowing processes to request and release memory as needed. Additionally, the memory manager may implement techniques such as virtual memory, which allows the operating system to use secondary storage (such as hard disk) as an extension of physical memory, thereby increasing the available memory space for running processes. Overall, the memory manager plays a crucial role in optimizing the utilization of memory resources and ensuring the smooth execution of programs in an operating system.