Sun Performance and Tuning: Java™ and the Internet, Second Edition

Chapter 13. RAM and Virtual Memory

The paging algorithm manages and allocates physical memory pages to hold the active parts of the virtual address space of processes running on the system. First, the monitoring statistics are explained; then, the algorithms for paging and swap are explained. The most important reason to understand paging is that you can then tell when adding more RAM will make a difference to performance.