Difference between Paging and Swapping in Operating System

An OS handles the computer system's primary functions. It manages hardware devices, processes, files, and various other duties. Memory management is one of them. It collects data of all memory regions and their allocation or free status. OS use two memory management techniques: swapping and paging. Swapping may be added to any processor scheduling approach to move jobs from the main memory to the back store. In contrast, paging allows a process's physical address space to be non-contiguous.

In this article, you will learn about the difference between Paging and Swapping in the operating system. But before discussing the differences, you must know about the Paging and Swapping in the operating system.

What is paging in the operating system?

Paging is a memory management technique that assigns a process to a non-contiguous address area. External fragmentation does not occur when a process's physical address is non-contiguous. Usually, the size is 4KB, and paging always occurs between currently active pages.

Paging is accomplished by dividing the RAM into fixed-sized sections known as frames. A process's logical memory is divided into identical fixed-size units called pages. The hardware determines the page size and frame size as we know that the procedure must be executed from the main memory. Therefore, whenever a process has to run, its pages from the source, or back store, are loaded into any free frames in the main memory.

What is Swapping in the operating system?

A memory management technique called Swapping removes inactive programs from the computer system's main memory. Any process must be executed in memory. Still, it can be temporarily swapped out of memory to a backup store and then returned to memory to continue its execution. Swapping is done to provide memory for the operation of other processes.

The swapping mechanism typically impacts performance, but it also aids in executing many large operations concurrently. Swapping is another name for a method of memory compression. Generally, low priority processes can be swapped so that higher priority processes may be loaded and executed.

Key Differences between the Paging and Swapping

There are various key differences between Paging and Swapping in the operating system. Some main differences between Paging and Swapping in the operating system are as follows:

1. Paging is a memory management method that enables systems to store and get the data from secondary storage for usage in the main memory. In contrast, Swapping temporarily transfers a process from the primary to secondary memory.
2. Paging is more flexible than swapping because paging transfers pages. On the other hand, Swapping is less flexible.
3. There are many processes in the main memory during swapping. On the other hand, there are some processes in the main memory while paging.
4. Swapping involves processes switching between the main memory and secondary memory. On the other hand, pages are equal-size memory blocks that transfer between the main memory and secondary memory during paging.
5. Swapping allows the CPU to access processes more quickly. On the other hand, paging allows virtual memory to be implemented.
6. Swapping is appropriate for heavy workloads. On the other hand, the paging is appropriate for light to medium workloads.
7. Swapping allows multiprogramming. In contrast, paging allows a process's physical address space to be non-contiguous, which prevents external fragmentation.

Head-to-head comparison between the Paging and Swapping

There are various head-to-head comparisons between Paging and Swapping. Some differences between Paging and Swapping are as follows:

Conclusion

Paging uses the non-contiguous address regions in the main memory, which prevents external fragmentation. Swapping could be included in the CPU scheduling mechanism when a process frequently has to move between main memory and other storage.