1.5.5

Memory and Process Management

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Memory and Process Management

As with all hardware in the computer, the memory (RAM) and central processing unit (CPU) must be managed by a part of the operating system.

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Purpose of memory manager

  • The memory manager controls the allocation of random access memory (RAM) to each running process.
  • If the memory manager fails to manage memory well, then the computer will slow down and might crash.
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Purpose of process manager

  • Modern operating systems allow users to run multiple programs at once.
  • In reality, a CPU can only execute one process at a time. So the CPU must switch between processes so quickly that it seems that they are running simultaneously.
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Multitasking

  • Modern operating systems allow multiple applications to run at once. This is known as multitasking.
  • For this to work, the operating system must manage how memory and CPU time is allocated to each running process.

Jump to other topics

1Computer Systems

1.1Systems Architecture

1.2Memory & Storage

1.3Computer Networks, Connections & Protocols

1.4Network Security

1.5Systems Software

1.6Ethical, Legal, Cultural & Environmental Concern

2Computational Thinking, Algorithms and Programming

2.1Algorithms

2.2Programming Fundamentals

2.3Producing Robust Programs

2.4Boolean Logic

2.5Programming Languages & IDEs

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