Refers to a variety of methods used to store data and programs in memory, keep track of them and reclaim the memory space when they are no longer needed. It also includes virtual memory, bank switching and memory protection techniques.
It Used to Be a Nightmare
In the days of the first PCs, memory management used to be a major consideration. The PC had more confusing memory types than any computer in history as its architecture was pushed, patched and expanded to meet the increasing demand for more capabilities. DOS, the operating system of the 1980s, was designed to address only one megabyte (1MB) of memory. Today, we take 512MB and 1GB for granted, and Windows uses up every available drop.
In the first decade of the PC, technicians had to deal with conventional memory, upper memory, high memory, extended memory and expanded memory in order to support growing applications. Countless books were written on PC memory management. There were even three-day courses on the subject. Eventually, subsequent versions of DOS, and especially Windows, added the necessary memory management functions to eliminate the manual, time-consuming tweaking and configuring how much memory should be reserved for this and how much for that. See memory allocation, virtual memory, garbage collection, memory protection, EMS, EMM and DOS memory manager.
Memory Allocation in a PC
It Used to Be a Nightmare
In the days of the first PCs, memory management used to be a major consideration. The PC had more confusing memory types than any computer in history as its architecture was pushed, patched and expanded to meet the increasing demand for more capabilities. DOS, the operating system of the 1980s, was designed to address only one megabyte (1MB) of memory. Today, we take 512MB and 1GB for granted, and Windows uses up every available drop.
In the first decade of the PC, technicians had to deal with conventional memory, upper memory, high memory, extended memory and expanded memory in order to support growing applications. Countless books were written on PC memory management. There were even three-day courses on the subject. Eventually, subsequent versions of DOS, and especially Windows, added the necessary memory management functions to eliminate the manual, time-consuming tweaking and configuring how much memory should be reserved for this and how much for that. See memory allocation, virtual memory, garbage collection, memory protection, EMS, EMM and DOS memory manager.
Memory Allocation in a PC
 | Reproduced with permission from Computer Desktop Encyclopedia. Copyright (c) 1981-2009 The Computer Language Company Inc. All rights reserved. |
Additional Resources
- IceClean 3.3.2 (Mac)
- IceClean is a powerful Finder and System optimization tool using ONLY built-in Unix system tasks to help your System stay healthy and to keep it running smoothly. IceClean lets you execute the following tasks: System Maintenance Process & Infos Periodic Routine Scripts Verify Preferences .plist files Repair Permissions Update Prebindings...
- Software downloads 2009-11-19
- IBM feels cozy on sidelines as Oracle-Sun deal languishes in anti-trust purgatory
- IBM should thank M$for activating its agents in the EC and stalling the Oracle-Sun deal.MySQL/MariaDB may be where most of the data residesYes, Oracle and DB2 have a significant market share of large DB installations, but most of the data in the world isn't aggregated by a few large companies,...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-18
- cFosSpeed 5.0 (Windows)
- Internet Acceleration with Traffic Shaping and bandwidth management. Ping optimizer plus packet prioritization. Maximum Download and Minimum Ping. For DSL, ADSL, VDSL, Cable, Modem, ISDN, Mobile (GSM, GPRS, HSCSD, UMTS, HSDPA), Filesharing (P2P), Online Games, VoIP, Streaming Media and Tuning. Version 4.50 build 1456 adds new skin: "LC History", adds...
- Software downloads 2009-11-18
- Accessorizer 1.6 (Mac)
- Accessorizer began as a Cocoa application and suite of Services to generate ObjC accessor declaration and implementation methods from variable declarations. But Accessorizer now offers more. Much, much more, including support for generating @property and @synthesize statements. In addition to offering a broad range of memory management schemes, Accessorizer...
- Software downloads 2009-11-16
- Standard Phonebook 1.2.0.6 (Windows)
- Standard Phonebook is quality designed for simple and effective way to quick access your important phone number and contact information, keep contact information in a nice way. You may also create reminders of events. its a very simple, fast, friendly contact management pim software with printing ability, phone dialer integration,...
- Software downloads 2009-11-16
- AudioFinder 4.9.8 (Mac)
- AudioFinder is the digital musician's workflow accelerator, sample management system, and music production hub. AudioFinder gathers all the most useful tools in one quick and intuitive application, enabling you to be more creative by handling all the time consuming tasks that slow down your music production. AudioFinder can build a...
- Software downloads 2009-11-15
- Magic Memory Optimizer 8.1.1.343 (Windows)
- Whether you want to optimize your system performance or cleanse fragmentation collected in your system with as little effort as possible, Magic Memory Optimizer is the tool of choice. No other program is as feature-rich, yet as easy to use as Magic Memory Optimizer. Magic Memory Optimizer is designed to...
- Software downloads 2009-11-12
- Magic Speed 3.5 (Windows)
- Magic Speed will make your PC faster and more efficient in 5 simple steps. The software package includes startup management, fixing registry errors, Disk clean-up, and memory management. Magic Speed will analyze your applications, which are loaded with your PC boot-up. Being loaded, they occupy PC memory and slow down...
- Software downloads 2009-11-12
- Blockbuster initiating rentals via SD cards at store kiosks
- Blockbuster isn't going down without a fight. Their newest attempt to get customers in their stores and away from Netflix.com is a new rental system in which film lovers can rent movies via SD cards at a kiosk machine. Sounds like we still have to leave...
- Blog posts 2009-11-11
- Memory Booster Gold 6.1.1.490 (Windows)
- Memory Booster Gold is accommodated to deal with problems of memory management. It is a feature-rich yet easy-to-use program. Whether you want to improve your PC's performance or cleanse fragmentations collected in your system, it must be the tool of choice. Memory is a precious resource for computer, when it...
- Software downloads 2009-11-10
- FlippingBook PDF Publisher 0.5.6 (Windows)
- FlippingBook PDF Publisher is a Windows desktop application that helps you to produce remarkable online and offline Flash books with page flipping effect. No coding is required. Simply import your PDF, configure the look&feel and hit the publish button. Enjoy the real page flipping effect. Independence You are not tied...
- Software downloads 2009-11-10
- CodySafe 1.0.0.92 (Windows)
- CodySafe is a menu utility for portable applications. Turn your USB flash drive to a computer-on-stick. You may add, manage and launch your portable applications with ease and comfort. You can manage documents, multimedia files and pictures. You can keep your disk healthy with Drive Doctor. You will always know...
- Software downloads 2009-11-10
- 18 truths: The long fail of complexity
- Agree *****One of the best distillations of what 'risk' actually is, and why complexity exponentially increases it, I have read.But more to the point takes a realistic, rather than optimistic or pessimistic, view of how to asses it. And correctly acknowledges the 'human' factors involved in both cause, and...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-06
- Revisiting the Motorola Droid on Verizon [Q&A]
- Why the hate for drag and drop?Almost every review I have read faults the Droid because you can't auto-sync music:"(You can dump your music on a microSD card and pop it in, but it?s a copy-paste files affair, not a ?load my music? integrated experience.)"The Droid ships with a 16...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-05
- Berkeley UPC 2.10.0 (Mac)
- Unified Parallel C UPC is an extension of the C programming language designed for high performance computing on large-scale parallel machines. The language provides a uniform programming model for both shared and distributed memory hardware. The programmer is presented with a single shared, partitioned address space, where variables may be...
- Software downloads 2009-11-03
- The perfect computer?
- Do we have the technology to build a perfect computer? Would it be perfect for a specific purpose or is it possible to build a perfect general purpose computer? Small Business Computing's Mark Beckley has some answers. Do we have the technology to build a perfect...
- News items 2009-11-02
- Internet performance management makes data center consolidation possible
- There are many more advantages to consolidation... Virtual switch technology... Virtual switch technology, is far faster than anything Ciscoor other hardware router vendors can push through your INTRAnet.... In the era of mashups... and multi database applications, you want internet connections that are at memory transfer speeds, not...
- Discussion threads 2009-11-02
- LivePVR Professional Call & Meeting Recorder (Mobile)
- LivePVR Professional Recorder Windows Mobile Professional LivePVR Professional is a application which can automatically and silently record Phone calls, Meeting notes,Voice Mail, Audio notes in the background and save them organized in folders named with the respective information. Forexample, for Phone Calls and Voice Mail messages, the file names will...
- Software downloads 2009-11-01
- LivePVR Professional Call & Meeting Recorder (S60 3rd Edition) (Mobile)
- LivePVR Professional Recorder for Symbian Series 60 3rd Edition LivePVR Professional is a application which can automatically and silently record Phone calls, Meeting notes,Voice Mail, Audio notes in the background and save them organized in folders named with the respective information. Forexample, for Phone Calls and Voice Mail messages, the...
- Software downloads 2009-10-31
- LivePVR Professional Call & Meeting Recorder (S60 5th Edition) (Mobile)
- LivePVR Professional Recorder for Symbian Series 60 5th Edition LivePVR Professional is a application which can automatically and silently record Phone calls, Meeting notes,Voice Mail, Audio notes in the background and save them organized in folders named with the respective information. Forexample, for Phone Calls and Voice Mail messages, the...
- Software downloads 2009-10-31
Neighboring Terms
Premier Vendor Content Whitepapers, webcasts & resources from our Power Center Sponsors
- Save time with automated shipping solutions
-
The Business Essentials Guide provides you useful tools and templates to help grow your business and save you time with automated shipping solutions.
- Visit the UPS Business Essentials Guide
- Reduce risk. Reduce complexity. Increase reliability.
-
A simplified IT environment isn't just less complex. It's also more reliable. Standardize on a single Linux platform with SUSE Linux Enterprise from Novell, and get the world's most interoperable Linux
- Learn more >>
- Keep Up With The Latest In Document Management with The DocuMentor.
-
Doc delivers the scoop on today's enterprise content management, printer maintenance, and all other issues related to document management. It's the DocuMentor Blog.
- Learn more >>
- New Online Dashboard for IT Leaders
-
Read about top issues IT decision-makers face every day, plus get cost-effective solutions to real-life IT problems.
- Learn more >>
Popular Sanity Saver Videos
