Page (computer memory)

"Page size" redirects here. For information on paper, see Paper size.
Not to be confused with Bank (computer memory) or Block (computer memory).
Main article: Memory paging

A page, memory page, or virtual page is a fixed-length contiguous block of virtual memory, described by a single entry in a page table. It is the smallest unit of data for memory management in an operating system that uses virtual memory. Similarly, a page frame is the smallest fixed-length contiguous block of physical memory into which memory pages are mapped by the operating system.[1][2][3]

A transfer of pages between main memory and an auxiliary store, such as a hard disk drive, is referred to as paging or swapping.[4]

  1. ^ Christopher Kruegel (2012-12-03). "Operating Systems (CS170-08 course)" (PDF). cs.ucsb.edu. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-08-10. Retrieved 2016-06-13.
  2. ^ Martin C. Rinard (1998-08-22). "Operating Systems Lecture Notes, Lecture 9. Introduction to Paging". people.csail.mit.edu. Archived from the original on 2016-06-01. Retrieved 2016-06-13.
  3. ^ "Virtual Memory: pages and page frames". cs.miami.edu. 2012-10-31. Archived from the original on 2016-06-11. Retrieved 2016-06-13.
  4. ^ Belzer, Jack; Holzman, Albert G.; Kent, Allen, eds. (1981), "Virtual memory systems", Encyclopedia of computer science and technology, vol. 14, CRC Press, p. 32, ISBN 0-8247-2214-0