07-22-2002
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Join Date: Apr 2002
Last Activity: 28 March 2019, 4:00 PM EDT
Location: On my motorcycle
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In a virtual memory computer, paging is the transfer of program segments (pages) into and out of memory. Although paging is the primary mechanism for virtual memory, excessive paging is not desired (thrashing - Excessive paging in a virtual memory computer. If programs are not written to run in a virtual memory environment, the operating system may spend excessive amounts of time swapping program pages in and out of the disk.
The goal of virtual memory is to increase internal memory capacity, not to waste time reloading program segments over and over. However, a well-designed virtual memory system tracks page usage and prevents the most-often-used modules from being swapped to disk.)