Virtual Address Space
1. How is an operating system’s virtual address space divided?
Pages are the standard fixed-size units used to split virtual address space. Each page corresponds to a block of memory, and the operating system manages the mapping between virtual pages and physical memory using a page table.
2. Can a virtual address be shared by numerous processes?
Several processes can share a single virtual address, yes. Since each process has a distinct virtual address space, various physical memory locations are referenced by the same virtual address in different processes.
3. What occurs when a process accesses a virtual address that isn’t associated with any physical memory?
A page fault occurs when a process accesses a virtual address that is not currently mapped to physical memory. Before enabling the operation to continue, the operating system first establishes the mapping by retrieving the matching page from secondary storage (such as a hard disc) and updating the page table.
Virtual Address Space in Operating System
In operating systems, Virtual memory plays a very vital role, in managing the memory allotted to different processes and efficiently isolating the different memory addresses. The role of the virtual address is to assign a space to the ledger of all the virtual memory areas that are provided to different processes. This process enables the process to view the respective memory independently and be more flexible and maintainable.