Memory Management Paper
POS/355

Memory Management Paper The competition between the operating system Linux and Windows continues to grow as Linux’s popularity continues to rise. Windows has been known to the world as one of the easiest operating systems to start off with. In other words, users who are unfamiliar with any of the operating systems or computers in general have an easier time understanding Windows over the other operating systems. Everyone pays attention to the operating system and the ease of use. However, most people neglect or fail to understand the Memory Management part of the operating system, which the heart of the operating system. The Memory Management System is considered to be one of the most important things that an operating system does. Its functions consist of managing the memory within the RAM and the hard drive. It also helps to allocate and de-allocate memory in order to be able to perform basic functions.
Once the RAM is full or cannot “intake” more information, a “Virtual Memory” is utilized within the hard drive in order to serve as extra RAM. It is advised to optimize the Virtual Memory as much as possible. This includes setting a limit to the amount of space that is allocated as Virtual Memory. It is important to note that the memory management will significantly affect the overall performance and the speed of the operating system and the whole system in general. For the most part, Window’s and Linux’s memory management are very similar. Sumit Khanka, another student puts everything in a better perspective that makes it easier to understand.

“Windows executes from ROM all the way up to the multi-petabyte NUMA configurations, taking full advantage of all capabilities of existing and future hardware designs. Linux implements the virtual memory data structure just like UNIX. Virtual memory area structures are maintained in linked lists by it. These data structures represent continuous memory areas which are containing the same protection parameters.” (Khanka 2013)

In simpler terms, Windows executes from the Read-Only Memory, which helps for future upgrades and implementations to your operating system and hardware. Linux works like UNIX in the way that it has several data structures with memory areas that are continuous and are protected by the same parameters as UNIX. The windows operating system uses a structure that closely resembles a tree. Linux uses a structure that resembles a linked list. With Windows, each of the nodes within the “tree” is called Virtual Address Descriptor. Each of these nodes contain the same exact protection parameters and also commit state information.
The tree is also balanced and not too much in depth. This allows for the operating system to much more easily reach information that would otherwise take longer to reach. The Virtual Address Descriptors can mark each node as reserved,