A Survey on Computer System Memory Management and Optimization Techniques

Computer memory is central to the operation of a modern computer system; it stores data or program instructions on a temporary or permanent basis for use in a computer. However, there is an increasing gap between the speed of memory and the speed of microprocessors. In this paper, various memory management and optimization techniques are reviewed to reduce the gap, including the hardware designs of the memory organization such as memory hierarchical structure and cache design; the memory management techniques varying from replacement algorithms to optimization techniques; and virtual memory strategies from a primitive bare-machine approach to paging and segmentation strategies.