What is virtual memory and why is it used?

Os Memory Management Questions



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What is virtual memory and why is it used?

Virtual memory is a memory management technique used by operating systems to provide an illusion of having more physical memory than is actually available. It allows the operating system to use a combination of physical memory (RAM) and secondary storage (usually a hard disk) to store and retrieve data. Virtual memory is used to overcome the limitations of physical memory by allowing the operating system to allocate and manage memory resources more efficiently. It enables the execution of larger programs and multiple processes simultaneously, as well as providing memory protection and isolation between processes.