What Is Memory Management?

Date First Published: 28th September 2023

Topic: Computer Systems

Subtopic: Computer Software

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty Level: 6/10

Learn about what memory management is in this article.

Memory management refers to the ways that operating systems manage memory. Operating systems help to manage memory (RAM) on an operating system by deciding how much RAM each process should be allocated when multiple applications are run at the same time, switching between the main memory and virtual memory when there is no available RAM, and freeing up memory when it is no longer being used.

Operating systems also keep track of all new processes. When a new process is discovered, it is loaded into the memory (RAM) and the program can be run by the CPU. When a process is closed, the operating system will free up memory. When memory is loaded, the operating system determines which memory locations it will be allocated to and keeps track of the status of each memory location, either allocated or free.

Virtual Memory

When there is an insufficient amount of RAM, the operating system uses a portion of the hard drive as virtual memory to compensate for it. When files are loaded from the hard drive, they will load much slower than if they were loaded from the RAM. When the operating system has to constantly switch between virtual memory and the main memory, it is known as thrashing. This happens when the virtual memory is overused, which will cause a very high hard drive access rate and harm the performance of the computer until the issue is fixed. For more information about virtual memory, see this article.

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