Deflated
Random access memory (RAM) is used to store data for ongoing operations. RAM has an ultra-short access time, but it is comparatively expensive to buy. Moreover, you cannot extend RAM infinitely, because the board can only take a certain size and only offers a fixed number of slots for it. Additionally, memory modules for older devices are sometimes difficult to obtain.
Instead of adding more RAM to the computer, another approach is to make more data fit in the RAM you already have. Current computers are fast enough that on-the-fly data compression hardly makes a difference to the total execution time. Data compression started as a technology for archiving data on hard disks, but you can also use compression for data in RAM memory.
The three methods, zram, zswap, and zcache, provide three implementations that extend content compression to RAM. These features made it into the main kernel branch [1] in the 3.14 kernel, but haven't received much everyday use. Only Android 4.4 and Knoppix 7 or higher activate zram by default.
[...]
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