When a program is selected for execution, the system brings it into virtual storage, divides it into pages of four kilobytes, transfers the pages into central storage for execution. To the programmer, the entire program appears to occupy contiguous space in storage at all times. Actually, not all pages of a program are necessarily in central storage, and the pages that are in central storage do not necessarily occupy contiguous space.

The pieces of a program executing in virtual storage must be moved between real and auxiliary storage. To allow this, z/OS® manages storage in units, or blocks, of four kilobytes. The following blocks are defined:

• A block of central storage is a frame.
• A block of virtual storage is a page.
• A block of auxiliary storage is a slot.

A page, a frame, and a slot are all the same size: Four kilobytes. An active virtual storage page resides in a central storage frame. A virtual storage page that becomes inactive resides in an auxiliary storage slot (in a paging data set). Figure 1 shows the relationship of pages, frames, and slots.

In Figure 1, z/OS is performing paging for a program running in virtual storage. The lettered boxes represent parts of the program. In this simplified view, program parts A, E, F, and H are active and running in central storage frames, while parts B, C, D, and G are inactive and have been moved to auxiliary storage slots. All of the program parts, however, reside in virtual storage and have virtual storage addresses.

Figure 1. Frames, pages, and slots

z/OS uses a series of tables to determine whether a page is in real or auxiliary storage, and where. To find a page of a program, z/OS checks the table for the virtual address of the page, rather than searching through all of physical storage for it. z/OS then transfers the page into central storage or out to auxiliary storage as needed. This movement of pages between auxiliary storage slots and central storage frames is called paging. Paging is key to understanding the use of virtual storage in z/OS.

z/OS paging is transparent to the user. During job execution, only those pieces of the application that are required are brought in, or paged in, to central storage. The pages remain in central storage until no longer needed, or until another page is required by the same application or a higher-priority application and no empty central storage is available. To select pages for paging out to auxiliary storage, z/OS follows a "Least Used" algorithm. That is, z/OS assumes that a page that has not been used for some time will probably not be used in the near future.