What is the primary purpose of virtual memory in a computer system?

Correct option is D

The correct answer is (d) To extend RAM capacity by using disk space

• Virtual memory is a memory management technique that allows a computer to compensate for physical memory shortages by temporarily transferring data from random access memory (RAM) to disk storage.

• It gives the illusion to users and programs that there is almost unlimited RAM, even though the computer's physical memory (RAM) is limited.

• The disk space (usually on the hard disk or solid-state drive) is used as an extension of the RAM, which helps in running larger programs or more applications simultaneously than would be possible with the limited physical memory alone.

Information Booster:

• Physical Memory (RAM): This is the main memory of the system, which is fast but limited in size.

• Swap Space: The portion of the disk used by the operating system to simulate additional memory is called swap space.

• Page File: On Windows, the swap space is usually referred to as the page file. On Unix-based systems, it's known as swap space.

• Memory Paging: Virtual memory uses a technique called paging, where data is divided into pages that can be swapped between RAM and disk.

Additional Information:

• (a) To provide backup for data: This is not the purpose of virtual memory. Backup refers to data duplication for security, which is handled by other systems like cloud storage or external backups.

• (b) To increase physical storage capacity: Virtual memory does not increase physical storage; it uses disk space to extend the effective size of RAM.

• (c) To extend CACHE memory for storage: Cache memory is different from virtual memory; it's a small, high-speed memory used to store frequently accessed data.