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Memory Management

In: Computers and Technology

Submitted By computernerd738
Words 448
Pages 2
Memory Management
Vicki Zafke
POS/355
June 02, 2014
Melba Beavers

Memory Management
A critically important component of a computer’s operating system is the memory. Memory management is the act of monitoring and handling the memory. An operating systems memory management includes tasks such as relocation, protection, sharing, and organization. Although there are several basic factors in regards to memory management, some operating systems have distinguishing features that set them apart from one another.
There are two main tasks that an operating system must achieve during the memory management cycle. Each process has its own memory space. For example, in the 32-bit Windows operating system each process is allotted up to 4 gigabytes of memory in the virtual address space. The first task is to ensure that the process does not run into another processes space and that another process does not run into it. The second task is in order for the process to run effectively, the different types of memory must be used properly.
Virtual memory is a common concept for operating systems. “The Windows virtual memory manager controls how memory is allocated and how paging is performed.”(Stallings, 2012, p. 386). Virtual memory is separated into two parts, one for the process and one for the system. For example, the 4 gigabytes in the 32-bit Windows operating system is divided into two so that 2 gigabytes is reserved for the process and 2 gigabytes is reserved for the system. The number “32-bit” stands for the amount random access memory (RAM) available in megabytes. Realistically, 32 megabytes is not enough space for all the programs that a user typically runs. That’s where virtual memory takes over.
The process of applications being stored into memory is a fairly simple procedure. Each application is loaded into a block size, such as 2 kilobytes, which is determined by the operating system. The blocks have fixed boundaries so that the processes do not overlap each other. The applications continue to load into the memory for storage until eventually the random access memory (RAM) has reached its capacity of 32-bits. Once the random access memory (RAM) has been completely filled, the processor begins to access the computers virtual memory. Memory Management Diagram (Franklin, 1998-2014)

Disk
Storage
Disk
Storage
Virtual
Memory
Virtual
Memory
RAM
RAM
Cache
Cache
CPU
CPU

References
Franklin, C. (1998-2014). How Operating Systems Work. Retrieved from http://computer.howstuffworks.com/operating-system7.htm
Stallings, W. (2012). Operating Systems: Internals and Design Principals (7th ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection.
Microsoft. (2014). Memory Management. Retrieved from http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366912%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

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