Main Memory Management

Questions and Answers

What is the group of many logical addresses called?

Virtual memory

Logical address space (correct)

Main memory

Physical address space

What is the purpose of the relocation register?

To convert logical addresses to physical addresses (correct)

To generate logical addresses

To map physical addresses to virtual memory

To manage main memory

What is the process of converting logical addresses to physical addresses called?

Address translation

Address binding

Memory mapping

All of the above (correct)

What is the logical address provided by?

The operating system kernel Signup and view all the answers

What is the memory management unit also known as?

MMU Signup and view all the answers

What is the value added to the logical address to get the physical address?

The value of the relocation register Signup and view all the answers

What is the purpose of the CPU in the context of address translation?

To generate logical addresses Signup and view all the answers

What is the relationship between the logical address space and the physical address space?

They are independent of each other Signup and view all the answers

What is the primary purpose of main memory management?

To allocate memory to multiple programs simultaneously Signup and view all the answers

What is the main memory of a computer?

A set of continuous locations Signup and view all the answers

Why are binary addresses represented in hexadecimal numbers?

For the convenience of the programmer and user Signup and view all the answers

What is the physical address space?

A group of many physical addresses Signup and view all the answers

What is the physical address provided by?

The hardware Signup and view all the answers

What is the limitation of physical addresses?

They have some end limits Signup and view all the answers

What happens to programs when they need to be executed?

They are loaded to main memory from secondary memory Signup and view all the answers

What is the address space?

A group of many memory locations Signup and view all the answers

Study Notes

Main Memory Management

In multiprogramming, multiple programs are present in main memory, but memory capacity is limited, so memory management is necessary to allocate space for each program.

Main Memory

Main memory is a temporary read/write memory of a computer, composed of continuous locations, each with a specific binary address.
For convenience, addresses are represented in hexadecimal numbers.
Programs are stored in secondary memory and loaded into main memory for execution, and stored in various locations according to space availability.
The group of memory locations is called the address space.

Physical Address Space

A physical address is the address of a location in physical memory (RAM).
Features of physical address space:
- Provided by hardware.
- A binary number made with a combination of 0 and 1.
- Refers to a particular cell or location of primary memory.
- Has some end limits, starting from zero to some end limit.

Logical Address Space

A logical address is the address of a location in virtual memory, also known as a virtual address.
Features of logical address space:
- Provided by the operating system kernel.
- May not be continuous in memory.
- Might be present in the form of segments.
- Sometimes logical addresses might be the same value as a physical address.

Mapping Logical to Physical Address

The memory management unit (MMU) maps logical addresses to physical addresses.
The relocation register is used to convert logical addresses to physical addresses.
Steps:
- CPU generates a logical address.
- The value of the relocation register is added to the logical address.
- The output is the physical address, pointing to a location in main memory.
This process is also known as address translation or address binding.