What Is Virtual Address (VA)?

When you hear the word "virtual," it's easy to think of things like superheroes or maybe even dragons. But does it mean for something to be virtual? In this case, we're talking about a virtual address in memory. A virtual address is a pointer for a memory space that can be an operating system that allows you to process how to use it. The virtual address points to a location in primary storage where a function can operate independently of other techniques. If two methods are running on your computer and both need to access some data, they'll each have their copy of it and communicate back and forth through this shared space instead of having their copies of everything. It also means that if one process has already used up all its memory space, but another method needs some more, it can request more from the OS and give away the extra when it no longer needs it! Virtual addresses are usually generated by the software and are therefore more flexible. The MMU has to track which virtual addresses have been used for reading and which virtual addresses are available for writing. Keeping track of virtual addresses is called "swapping", which is why virtual lessons are essential. The memory management system can allocate vast memory to individual processes with virtual addresses. The system lets every process assume it has all available memory to itself when, in fact, the operating system is juggling memory between processes as needed. If you watch your computer's task manager, you can always see this happening. While you have a big file open in one program, other programs will show up as not responding until you close that big file.The operating system moves the big file around between processes so that each program gets some time with it—and then gets shuffled off when it's done.