swapping


swapping

[′swäp·iŋ] (computer science) A procedure in which a running program is temporarily suspended and moved onto secondary storage, and primary storage is reassigned to a more pressing job, in order to maximize the efficient use of primary storage.

swapping

swap

swapping

Replacing one segment of a program in memory (RAM) with another part of the program and restoring it back to the original if required. Exchanging program segments is the primary function of virtual memory, which is a feature in almost every operating system. See paging and virtual memory.