The technique of swapping items between memory and storage is called _. (418)
a. thrashing b. paging c. spooling d. buffering
The Correct Answer and Explanation is :
The correct answer is b. paging.
Explanation:
Paging is a memory management scheme that eliminates the need for contiguous allocation of physical memory. This technique helps the operating system manage memory by swapping data between physical memory (RAM) and secondary storage, like hard drives or SSDs. When a program or process requires more memory than is available in RAM, the operating system moves data that is not immediately needed from RAM to the disk. This process is known as “paging.”
Paging works by dividing memory into fixed-size blocks called “pages.” When a program accesses a page that is not currently in physical memory, a page fault occurs. The operating system then loads the required page from the storage into RAM. If necessary, it will swap an existing page in memory to the disk to free up space. The page is moved back into memory when it is required again, and this back-and-forth movement between memory and storage is called paging.
This technique allows for efficient use of memory resources, as it provides the illusion that the system has more memory than it physically possesses, which is particularly important for multitasking environments where many processes are running simultaneously.
However, excessive paging can lead to a phenomenon known as thrashing. Thrashing occurs when the system spends more time swapping data between RAM and storage than executing actual instructions. This happens when there is not enough physical memory to handle all running processes efficiently. To avoid thrashing, the operating system must manage memory allocation and page replacement algorithms effectively.
To summarize, paging is a crucial memory management technique that helps systems handle larger workloads by swapping data between memory and storage, ensuring that programs can run even when physical memory is limited.