What is virtual memory and how does it help a computer run larger tasks?

• A. It uses a portion of storage as an extension of RAM to hold active data; enables larger workloads.
• B. It increases CPU speed.
• C. It duplicates entire RAM contents.
• D. It encrypts memory contents for security.

Answer: (A)

Virtual memory lets a computer act as if it has more RAM by using a portion of storage as an extension of memory to hold the data currently active in programs. The system moves data in and out in fixed blocks called pages, keeping track of what’s in RAM and what’s on disk. When a program needs data not currently in RAM, the operating system loads the needed page from disk and may swap out a less-used page to make room. This expands the effective address space, so you can run larger tasks or more programs than physical RAM alone would allow. The trade-off is speed: disk access is much slower than RAM, so heavy swapping can slow things down. Virtual memory does not speed up the CPU, does not duplicate all of RAM, and does not encrypt memory contents.