memory management

Memory management is the core system function that allocates and deallocates primary storage (RAM) for running processes, optimizing resource utilization and preventing critical errors like segmentation faults.

Memory management is a non-negotiable system function: it controls the allocation and deallocation of Random Access Memory (RAM) for every process. The goal is efficiency and stability. Operating systems (OS) like Linux and Windows implement techniques like virtual memory, which maps a process's logical address space to a physical address (RAM), using the Memory Management Unit (MMU) hardware for translation. This allows programs to utilize more memory than physically exists. At the application layer, two models dominate: manual control (e.g., C/C++'s `malloc()` and `free()`) and automatic garbage collection (GC). GC, used in languages like Java and Python, automatically reclaims unreachable memory, preventing memory leaks and improving stability by eliminating a class of pointer errors.

https://memorymanagement.org