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About Karl Zick
Expertise
I am very familiar with all brands of computers and computer components and the best places to purchase them. Can also provide a lot of help to the 'build your own PC' folks.

Experience
over 20 years experience as a computer systems consultant and PC builder/user/trouble shooter.

Education/Credentials
BSEE from VMI and CIS degree from El Camino.

 
   

You are here:  Experts > Computing/Technology > Understanding Computers > Buying a computer system > Virtual memory

Buying a computer system - Virtual memory


Expert: Karl Zick - 6/7/2009

Question
I received a note saying I did not have enough virtual memory.  What is virtual memory and how do I get more?  My computer tells me I have a Compaq Presario with 2.29 GHz and 4.48 MB of RAM.

Answer
Virtual memory is a computer system technique which gives an application program the impression that it has contiguous working memory (an address space), while in fact it may be physically fragmented and may even overflow on to disk storage. Systems that use this technique make programming of large applications easier and use real physical memory (e.g. RAM) more efficiently than those without virtual memory. Virtual memory differs significantly from memory virtualization in that virtual memory allows resources to be virtualized as memory for a specific system, as opposed to a large pool of memory being virtualized as smaller pools for many different systems.

Simply stated, virtual memory is an artifical extension of real memory (RAM).  

To find out more, and how you can improve it, go to http://www.fix-pc-errors.com/virtual-memory.htm.

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