Memory Management Essay -- Essays Papers

Memory Management A computer capable of running a multi-tasking system may have to deal with widely varying demands for memory. At some times, no users may be logged on and the only tasks running are the kernel and possibly a backup process. At other times, ten or more users may all be carrying out complex operations which demand lots of memory. Microsoft Windows versions 3.x provided a protected mode graphical operating environment that ran existing MS-DOS applications and allowed Windows applications to break the 640K barrier. There are three types of memory that Windows 3.x can use or provide (conventional, extended, and expanded). Conventional memory is the first 640K of memory in your machine. MS- DOS has a limit of 1024K of addressable memory (conventional memory plus the UMA), and all MS-DOS applications must run within this conventional memory. All Windows 3.x operating modes share this limitation for running MS-DOS applications, but standard and 386 enhanced modes break the 640K limitation for running Windows applications. Windows 3.x enhanced mode can create multiple virtual MS- DOS machines (Memory). Between the top of conventional memory at 640K and the start of extended memory at 1024K lies the 384K UMA. This area does not contain physical memory. Mapped into the 384K UMA are the system BIOS (basic input/output system) ROM chips and the display adapter memory. When you install other accessory cards, such as network adapters, they may also occupy sp...