Which component translates virtual addresses to physical addresses in a computer system?

Which component translates virtual addresses to physical addresses in a computer system?

• A. Memory Management Unit
• B. Cache
• C. CPU
• D. RAM

Answer: (A)

Virtual memory relies on mapping each virtual address to a real physical address. This mapping is performed by the Memory Management Unit, typically integrated with the CPU, using page tables and a Translation Lookaside Buffer to speed up repeated translations. The cache is for storing recently used data to speed access, not for translating addresses, and RAM simply holds data without performing any address translation. So the component that translates virtual addresses to physical addresses is the memory management unit.

Virtual memory relies on mapping each virtual address to a real physical address. This mapping is performed by the Memory Management Unit, typically integrated with the CPU, using page tables and a Translation Lookaside Buffer to speed up repeated translations. The cache is for storing recently used data to speed access, not for translating addresses, and RAM simply holds data without performing any address translation. So the component that translates virtual addresses to physical addresses is the memory management unit.