What is Virtual RAM?
It is a technology that virtually increases the amount of total RAM on our phone by using its internal memory (ROM).
WORKING
Working of the virtual RAM is explained with respect to below images. As illustrated, the mobile phone includes 8 GB RAM and 128 GB ROM and the phone includes virtual RAM feature, which allows the RAM, specifically the processor of the phone to use 3GB of the ROM as a virtual RAM.
PHONES WITH VIRTUAL-RAM IN CONSUMER MARKET
NOTICEABLE PATENT FILERS
EXAMPLE 1- SAMSUNG’s PATENT: US10831392B2
Title: Volatile and nonvolatile memory management method and electronic device.
Filing Date: January 11, 2017
Assignee:Samsung
Bay Summary: The patent relates to a system for managing memory of a portable electronic device, which includes a processor, a volatile memory (RAM) and a non-volatile memory (ROM). According to the patent, the processor moves data stored in the volatile memory to the non-volatile memory when specified conditions are met. Exemplary specified conditions include a time at which data is stored in the volatile memory, an estimate time at which data is to be stored in the volatile memory, a frequency of use of the data, or a last using time of data.
EXAMPLE 2- LG’s PATENT- US20190079876A1
Title:Digital device and method for controlling the same
Filing Date: March 13, 2018
Assignee:LGLG
Bay Summary: The patent application relates to a method for controlling a portable device including a first memory (RAM) and a second memory (ROM/Flash). According to the patent application, the second memory is used as a swap space/memory of the RAM, i.e., the space which acts as a virtual memory for the RAM that stores data when the Ram runs out of memory.
EXAMPLE 3- SANDISK’s PATENT- US9665296B2
Title:Method and computing device for using both volatile memory and non-volatile swap memory to pre-load a plurality of applications
Filing Date: May 07, 2014
Assignee:LGSanDisk
Bay Summary: The patent application relates to a method for managing memory of electronic devices including phones, PDAs, or the like. According to the patent, a portion of a non-volatile memory is used as a swap area, i.e., a portion of the non-volatile memory acts as an extension to volatile memory. Both the volatile memory and the non-volatile swap memory can be used to pre-load applications.
FAQs RELATED TO VIRTUAL RAM (V-RAM)
Q: What is basic memory Concept?
A: Broadly speaking, phones include two types of memory, namely a RAM, the volatile memory and a ROM, the non-volatile memory. The ROM is a memory where the data stored remains intact even when the power of the phone is turned off, thus all the data related to various applications is stored in the ROM, however, data accessing speed of ROM is slow. RAM is the memory that loses the data stored in it once the power is turned off. The data accessing speed of RAM is very fast while data accessing speed of ROM is slow. This is why whenever any application is accessed, the data related to the application is moved from the ROM to RAM and then the processor accesses the data from the RAM and executes the application. More the size of the RAM, greater is the processing speed. However, because of the cost associated with the RAM, its size can not be increased to a very high value.
Q: What challenges does V-RAM address?
A: Now, when multiple applications are accessed/executed parallelly, then RAM storage capacity may reach its maximum limit hence, the performance of the device degrades. This is where virtual RAM (V-RAM) comes into picture, it reserves a portion of a memory in the ROM and allocates it to the RAM when data storage capacity of RAM reaches its limit. The RAM stores some data files in the allocated memory in ROM and thus this memory acts as a virtual RAM.
Q: Is it same as Virtual Memory?
A: Yes, concept of virtual RAM is same as virtual memory, where a portion of memory of hard disc (ROM) of computer is allocated as a virtual memory for RAM to store data files when RAM runs out of memory.
Q: Does virtual RAM enhance processing speed of the device?
A: No, the virtual RAM does not enhance the processing speed of the device, instead, it acts as a buffer to store the applications which are less used or not used for a certain duration. Thus, it allows more applications to run parallelly.
Q: Can virtual RAM feature be added via software updates?
A: Yes, in all the devices with compatible hardware, the virtual RAM feature can be added via software updates.
Q: What are the challenges associated with deployment of virtual RAM in phones?
A: In phones, solid state devices (SSD) is used as a ROM, here SSD has limited number of write cycles, i.e., the number of time data can be written and/erased is limited. For example, if a portion of SSD is used as RAM, it means data is written and erased multiple times, thus virtual memory feature may impact the overall life of the ROM.
