Virtual memory compression

Virtual memory compression (also referred to as RAM compression and memory compression) is a memory management technique that utilizes data compression to reduce the size or number of paging requests to and from the auxiliary storage. In a virtual memory compression system, paging requests are compressed and stored in physical memory, which is usually random-access memory (RAM), or sent as compressed to auxiliary storage such as a hard disk drive (HDD) or solid-state drive (SSD). In both cases the virtual memory range whose contents has been compressed during the paging request is marked inaccessible so that attempts to access compressed pages can trigger page faults and reversal of the process (retrieval from auxiliary storage and decompression). The footprint of the data being paged is reduced by the compression process; in the first instance, the freed RAM is returned to the available physical memory pool, while the compressed portion is kept in RAM. In the second instance, the compressed data is sent to auxiliary storage but the resulting I/O operation is smaller and therefore takes less time.

In some implementations, including zswap, zram and Helix Software Company’s Hurricane, the entire process is implemented in software. In other systems, such as IBM's MXT, the compression process occurs in a dedicated processor that handles transfers between a local cache and RAM.

Virtual memory compression is distinct from garbage collection (GC) systems, which remove unused memory blocks and in some cases consolidate used memory regions, reducing fragmentation and improving efficiency. Virtual memory compression is also distinct from context switching systems, such as Connectix’s RAM Doubler (though it also did online compression) and Apple OS 7.1, in which inactive processes are suspended and then compressed as a whole.

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