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Contiguous memory
Data is stored in arrays of
- Operating system
- User processes
A chunk of main memory is reserved for the operating system and its memory management. The rest of the main memory is utilized by the user when the user runs any processes on the device. One of the ways to allocate memory to user processes is in the form of contiguous memory.
What is contiguous memory?
Consecutive blocks of memory allocated to user processes are called
The contiguous memory can be partitioned in two ways:
- Fixed sized partition
- Variable sized partition
Fixed sized partition
The memory is partitioned into pre-determined, fixed-size memory chunks. All the user processes are allocated in one partition.
Partitioning the memory into fixed sizes allows you fast access to data in memory and smoother memory management. However, this efficiency is achieved at the cost of
Variable sized partition
Instead of the memory being divided into fixed sizes, it is partitioned into consecutive, but variable-sized memory chunks for the user processes.
Although having memory partitioned helps you counter internal fragmentation, it also results in sluggish access to data in the memory and complicated memory management.
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