Category: Operating Systems
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Overview Virtual memory is a memory management technique that provides an abstraction of the physical RAM, giving each process the illusion that it has a large, contiguous block of memory, regardless of the actual physical layout. Core Concepts Logical vs. Physical Address: Logical Address: Generated by the CPU; the address a program “sees”. Physical Address:…
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Overview Process management is the core function of an operating system’s kernel, responsible for creating, scheduling, and terminating processes. It ensures that the CPU is utilized efficiently and that multiple programs can run concurrently. Core Concepts Process vs. Thread: Process: An executing instance of a program. It has its own isolated memory space (stack, heap,…
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Overview Inter-Process Communication (IPC) is a set of mechanisms provided by the operating system to allow processes to communicate and synchronize their actions. Since processes have isolated memory spaces, they cannot simply read/write to each other’s variables. Core Concepts Shared Memory: Two or more processes map the same region of physical memory into their own…
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Overview A file system is the method and data structure that an operating system uses to control how data is stored and retrieved. Without a file system, data placed in a storage medium would be one large body of data with no way to tell where one piece of information stops and the next begins.…