virtual

<jargon, architecture>

(Via the technical term virtual memory, probably from the term "virtual image" in optics) 1. Common alternative to logical; often used to refer to the artificial objects (like addressable virtual memory larger than physical memory) created by a computer system to help the system control access to shared resources.

2. Simulated; performing the functions of something that isn't really there. An imaginative child's doll may be a virtual playmate.

Opposite of real or physical.

[Jargon File]

Last updated: 1994-11-30

Nearby terms:

virgule ♦ Viron ♦ virtual ♦ virtual 86 mode ♦ virtual address ♦ virtual cache

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