Usage Trend
During the 1990s, computer memory became cheaper and programs with larger memory footprints became commonplace. This trend has been mostly due to the widespread use of computer software, from large enterprise-wide applications that consume vast amounts of memory (such as databases), to memory intensive multimedia authoring and editing software. To tackle the ever increasing memory needs, Virtual Memory systems were introduced that divide the available memory into equally-sized portions and loads them from "pages" stored on the hard-disk on an as-and-when required basis.
This approach to support programs with huge-memory-footprints has been quite successful. Most modern operating systems including Microsoft Windows, Apple's Mac OS X, and all versions of Linux and Unix provide Virtual memory systems.
Read more about this topic: Memory Footprint
Famous quotes containing the word usage:
“Pythagoras, Locke, Socrates—but pages
Might be filled up, as vainly as before,
With the sad usage of all sorts of sages,
Who in his life-time, each was deemed a bore!
The loftiest minds outrun their tardy ages.”
—George Gordon Noel Byron (1788–1824)