Virtualization Essentials

Understanding Memory Virtualization

Fifteen years ago, the concept of computer memory was isolated in a few pockets of people who, in some way or another, were involved with computer technology. They didn’t even refer to it as memory, but rather as RAM, which stands for Random Access Memory. RAM was thought of and treated as another storage device, like a disk, but it was much faster and you could access data in memory with a more flexible model than accessing data from disk storage devices. System memory sizes were much smaller as well, measured in kilobytes and then megabytes. Let’s contrast that with today’s environment. The devices we discussed earlier, personal computers and smart phones, routinely are offered with gigabytes of memory. iPads ...