Virtual Memory
Lesson Instructions
Watch and follow the YouTube video, the lesson contains three parts:
Key Information and content - all you need to do here is watch and listen
Learning activity - this activity is identifying the advantages and disadvantages of virtual memory
Consolidation - these are past exam question and are for deliberate practice to check your understanding.
Virtual Memory Full Lesson Video.mp4Task - Advantages & Disadvantages
Task - Exam Questions - Deliberate Practice
Mark Scheme
Question 1 (a)
1 mark per bullet to max 3
VM is used when RAM is full
...part of the secondary storage used as (temporary) RAM/VM
Data from RAM is moved to the secondary storage/VM (to make space in RAM)
RAM can then be filled with new data
When data in VM in needed it is moved back to RAM
Question 1 (b)
1 mark per bullet to max 2
More RAM will improve the performance of the computer
Excessive use can cause disk thrashing...
...which decreases performance
VM is slower to access than RAM direct (because it has to go back to RAM first)
Moving data between RAM and VM takes processor time.
Question 2
1 mark per bullet to max 3
Allow user to run programs there is insufficient RAM for
Move data not recently used to HDD to free up space in RAM
...to be filled by new data required to be stored in RAM
Allows her to run more programs simultaneously with less slow down.