Main Memory Management

• Memory is a large array of words or bytes, each with its own address.  It is a repository of quickly accessible data shared by the CPU and I/O devices.
• Main memory is a volatile storage device.  It loses its contents in the case of system failure.
• The operating system is responsible for the following activities in connections with memory management:

1. Keep track of which parts of memory are currently being used and by whom.
2. Decide which processes to load when memory space becomes available.
3. Allocate and deallocate memory space as needed.