GATE | GATE-CS-2004 | Question 21

The minimum number of page frames that must be allocated to a running process in a virtual memory environment is determined by
(A) the instruction set architecture
(B) page size
(C) physical memory size
(D) number of processes in memory


Answer: (A)

Explanation:
There are two important tasks in virtual memory management: a page-replacement strategy and a frame-allocation strategy. Frame allocation strategy says gives the idea of minimum number of frames which should be allocated. The absolute minimum number of frames that a process must be allocated is dependent on system architecture, and corresponds to the number of pages that could be touched by a single (machine) instruction.
So, it is instruction set architecture i.e. option (A) is correct answer.

See Question 3 of https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/operating-systems-set-4/

Reference:
https://www.cs.uic.edu/~jbell/CourseNotes/OperatingSystems/9_VirtualMemory.html

This solution is contributed by Nitika Bansal

Quiz of this Question