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Memory Management

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Windows and Linux- Memory Management

Marlana Muzny

POS/355

May 13, 2013
Joe Fischer

Windows and Linux- Memory Management

Memory management is the process that the operating system takes to manage the computers processes and memory. This means that the operating system has to figure out what sections of the memory are free and are being used at the current time allocating and reallocating as needed. Memory management is extremely important in how a computer operates. In this paper, we will compare the new Windows 8 to the Linux operating system and describe the differences in the memory management. Windows 8, it is the newest product in operating systems for Microsoft. With enhancements from the previous version, Windows 8 makes better use of the memory management than the previous version Windows 7. In Windows 7, Microsoft started making changes to the operating system when it came to memory management; however, fell short compared to what was already being done in Linux operating system. With the previous versions, most of the memory management occurred upon login. This slowed the processor down taking up all the resources at one time using the system memory. To address this issue and correct it in Windows 8, Microsoft implemented a start on demand model. What this means is that processes that are needed are delayed until the process is needed verses having all the processes start automatically when the computer is started. This makes more run on scheduled than before which frees up startup memory. According to Microsoft (2013),” Virtual memory combines your computer’s RAM with temporary space on your hard disk. When RAM runs low, virtual memory moves data from RAM to a space called a paging file. Moving data to and from the paging file frees up RAM to complete its work (para 1-2)”. Only the most recent files used are keep in the physical memory and all the others are moved. The idea is to keep as much physical RAM as possible for programs to use. Virtual memory is important when it comes to Windows because the basic concept is that the virtual memory is making the processor believe there is private memory available. With the new system Windows is able to use more of the virtual memory than prior versions. You have your physical memory and your page file system, but the goal is to keep the physical memory as clean as possible, free. The page file system is where information is stored when it is least used. When the file is need, than it is pulled back into the physical memory. Some of the programs use the same use DLL file. So instead of having multiple copies of the same file and the programs using multiplies copies, there is only one with Windows 8 and this frees up memory again. Microsoft has this self-programmed to this automatically in Windows 8, this is how the operating system manages the system. Linus access programming code you can rewrite for open source. Meaning you can make changes to the code. You also have an open community of people who write and share the code to the system; this is a support system that Windows does not have. When it comes to Linux, the programmer can delegate somewhat how the computer’s memory is used. Linux has two options for swap; which are swap file or swap position. Both options are just as fast. Swap file means that it is an adjustable file. You can change the location, you can change the size, you can delegate it to any hard drive, and change it as needed. For example if you were using the swap file and you added an addition hard drive that was faster, you could delegate that file to where you wanted. The other option in Linux is the swap partition. The swap partition is more permanent. It is set to the hard drive and it cannot be changed without specialization. Windows 8 is similar in the paging system with Linux, files are “put away” as you would say, until they are needed later by the kernel mapping out bypassing cache. The difference is the bypassing with Windows. According to Linux How To’s, (2013), “The reason Linux uses so much memory for disk cache is because the RAM is wasted if it isn't used. Keeping the cache means that if something needs the same data again, there's a good chance it will still be in the cache in memory. Fetching the information from there is around 1,000 times quicker than getting it from the hard disk. If it's not found in the cache, the hard disk needs to be read anyway, but in that case nothing has been lost in time.” This is a main difference between Windows and Linux in regards to the cache and the memory. The cache is used to control things that were recently used, just like in a web site where someone views a particular web site and the information is stored on their computer.

Reference
Linux Howtos: System. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.linuxhowtos.org/System/Linux%20Memory%20Management.htm
Microsoft. (2013). What is virtual memory?. Retrieved from http://windows.microsoft.com/en- us/windows-vista/what-is-virtual-memory

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