Virtual Memory

Virtual Memory is a space where large programs can store themselves in the form of pages while their execution and only the required pages or portions of processes are loaded into the main memory. 

This technique is useful as large virtual memory is provided for user programs when a very small physical memory is there.

In real scenarios, most processes never need all their pages at once, for the following reasons:

• Error handling code is not needed unless that specific error occurs, some of which are quite rare.
• Arrays are often oversized for worst-case scenarios, and only a small fraction of the arrays are actually used in practice.
• Certain features of certain programs are rarely used.

---

Benefits of having Virtual Memory

---

• Large programs can be written, as the virtual space available is huge compared to physical memory.
• Less I/O required leads to faster and easy swapping of processes.
• More physical memory is available, as programs are stored on virtual memory, so they occupy very less space on actual physical memory.

Happy Exploring!