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Concept

Virtual Memory

Also Known As Virtual Storage
Technique

Virtual memory is a memory management technique that gives programs an idealized abstraction of the storage actually available on a machine, letting each program behave as if it owned a large private memory while the operating system shuffles pages between fast memory and disk. The first true virtual memory system was implemented at the University of Manchester as the one level storage system of the Atlas computer, with working paging prototypes by 1959 and the first Atlas commissioned in 1962. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Origin Year
1959 1
Working prototypes of paging at Manchester by 1959; the first Atlas was commissioned in 1962. A claim for Fritz-Rudolf Guntsch's 1956 Berlin thesis is on the record but does not stand up to careful scrutiny, per the source.
Core Principle
Give every program the illusion of one large uniform memory, and let the system move the real pages behind the scenes. 1
Connections

Associated With

Garbage Collection, Concepts

In Field

Operating Systems, Fields
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Virtual Memory
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Opening and History sections
    The first true virtual memory system was that implemented at the University of Manchester to create a one-level storage system as part of the Atlas Computer.
  • Opening section
    virtual memory, or virtual storage, is enabled by a memory management technique that provides an 'idealized abstraction of the storage resources that are actually available on a given machine'
  • History section
    The first Atlas was commissioned in 1962 but working prototypes of paging had been developed by 1959.
  • Introduction
    The computer's operating system, using a combination of hardware and software, maps memory addresses used by a program, called virtual addresses, into physical addresses in computer memory.
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Frequently Asked Questions

Which computer first used virtual memory?

The Atlas computer at the University of Manchester, with paging prototypes by 1959 and commissioning in 1962.

The first true virtual memory system was built at the University of Manchester as the one level storage system of the Atlas computer. Working prototypes of paging existed by 1959, and the first Atlas was commissioned in 1962.
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