Understanding Virtual Memory: VAX/VMS and Linux Architectures

Every modern application relies on the operating system to manage physical memory efficiently and securely. Understanding how virtual memory actually works behind the scenes is essential for system administrators, software developers, and aspiring systems engineers. This course guides you through the fundamental mechanics of virtual memory systems, contrasting the pioneering VAX/VMS architecture with contemporary Linux memory management. You will transition from knowing basic memory terms to understanding complex paging, address translation, and memory allocation strategies. What you'll learn: - Understand the foundational concepts of virtual addresses, physical memory, and page tables. - Compare how VAX/VMS and Linux handle address translation and page fault resolution. - Analyze page replacement algorithms and memory allocation strategies across different operating systems. - Explore modern Linux memory features including Transparent Huge Pages and cgroups-based memory limits. - Examine translation lookaside buffers (TLBs) and how hardware assists virtual memory. Starting with essential terminology and basic definitions, the course guides you step-by-step through address translation schemes, page table structures, and modern memory reclamation algorithms. You will read detailed architectural breakdowns and conceptual walk-throughs that clarify how hardware and software work in harmony. This text-only course is designed for beginners, systems administrators, and computer science enthusiasts, with no prior systems programming experience required. Start reading today to master the underlying mechanics of operating system memory management.