Virtual memory is a technique used by operating systems to increase the amount of available memory beyond the physical RAM installed in a computer. It works by temporarily transferring data from the computer's RAM to its hard disk.
When a computer runs a program, it loads the program into RAM so that the CPU can access it quickly. However, if the program requires more RAM than is available, the operating system will move some of the data that is not currently being used to the hard disk, freeing up space in RAM for the program.
This data is stored in a section of the hard disk called the swap file, page file, or paging file. The operating system keeps track of which data is in RAM and which is in the swap file, and when the CPU needs to access data that is not in RAM, the operating system retrieves it from the swap file and loads it into RAM.
The process of transferring data between RAM and the swap file is called swapping or paging. It is done transparently to the user and the program being run, allowing the computer to appear to have more RAM than it actually does.
Virtual memory can improve the performance of a computer by allowing it to run more programs or larger programs simultaneously, but it can also slow down performance if the computer has to swap data frequently because the hard disk is much slower than RAM.
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