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What is virtual memory ?
When the concept of Virtual memory is implemented by a computer and its operating system, it allows the users to utilize a very large range of memory or storage addresses for stored data. The computing system maps the user's virtual addresses to real hardware storage addresses.
When all the installed memory modules or physical memory is being used, the system can simulate more memory by using empty sectors in the hard drive to store additional data. The process of storing additional data on the hard drive and treating it as additional memory is known as swapping. Since hard drive access times are much slower than memory access times, using virtual memory can decrease the performance severely if it is generally performed.
Virtual memory is a design feature of the computer that permits software to use more main memory than the actual physical possessed by the computer. For example, programs could have access to 4 gigabytes of virtual memory on a computer's hard drive, even if the computer has only 32 megabytes of RAM.
