virtual storage
noun Computers.
a system whereby addressable memory is extended beyond main storage through the use of secondary storage managed by system software in such a way that programs can treat all of the designated storage as addressable main storage.
Also called
virtual memory.
Compare
real storage.
Origin of virtual storage
First recorded in 1970–75
Words nearby virtual storage
virtual image,
virtual machine,
virtual memory,
virtual particle,
virtual reality,
virtual storage,
virtuality,
virtualize,
virtually,
virtue,
virtue signaling
British Dictionary definitions for virtual memory
virtual storage
virtual memory
noun
a computer system in which the size of the memory is effectively increased by automatically transferring sections of a program from a large capacity backing store, such as a disk, into the smaller core memory as they are required
Scientific definitions for virtual memory
virtual memory
[ vûr′chōō-əl ]
A memory management system in a computer that temporarily stores inactive parts of the content RAM on a disk, restoring it to RAM when quick access to it is needed. This allows software to operate as though the computer has more RAM than it actually does.