OS Main and Virtual Memory Management

Computer systems are expected to provide high performance, efficiency, and an easy interface for users. To provide these features, multiprogramming and time sharing were introduced, so the CPU does not remain idle, and runs multiple processes concurrently. Running multiple processes concurrently means allowing multiple programs to reside in memory at the same time. This may cause serious memory management issues, particularly regarding the protection of data residing in memory. The operating system deals with these memory management issues by providing an abstraction of the physical memory to processes, a technique that is known as virtualization.

In this lesson, we will explore the virtualization of processes provided by the OS, memory management problems, and solutions provided by the OS for these problems.