Operating Systems · Memory virtualization

Paging

Splitting memory into fixed-size pages so a process's address space doesn't need to sit in one contiguous block.

Also known as: page tables, fixed-size pages, address translation.

Start a lesson on Paging

Learn first

• Address spaces: Each process's private view of memory, starting at zero, that the OS maps onto real physical RAM.

Leads to

• TLBs and fast address translation: A small hardware cache of recent address translations, so paging doesn't cost a memory access on every access.
• Multi-level and inverted page tables: Multi-level and inverted page tables, ways to keep the translation structure itself from eating too much memory.
• Virtual memory and page replacement: Letting total memory usage exceed physical RAM by swapping pages to disk, and deciding which page to evict.

Related topics

• Virtual memory and page replacement: Letting total memory usage exceed physical RAM by swapping pages to disk, and deciding which page to evict.