swapping in computer memory
Swapping: A method used by Windows to increase the RAM memory’s ability. It divides a program into the currently used portions, which is then held in the quick RAM chips, and the currently unused portion, which is held on the slow hard disk. For example, you have 4 MB of RAM and you have set up 8 MB of Virtual Memory space on the hard disk. You start a program which fills six megabytes. As you work, the first four megabytes are held in the RAM chips (which are very fast) and the last two megabytes (which are perhaps the spell checker) are held in the Virtual Memory space on the hard disk. If you start the spell checker, then the computer swaps the word processor’s formatting parts to the hard disk space and moves the spell checker into the RAM memory. When you finish spell checking, Windows swaps the spell checker back to the hard disk and moves the rest of the program back into RAM.