Memory overcommitment

Imagine you have a toy box with a lid, and you want to put as many toys in it as possible. But some of the toys are big and some are small, so you don't know exactly how many will fit.

This is kind of like memory overcommitment. When a computer runs a program, it needs to use some of its memory to store things like the program's code and data. But sometimes, a program might ask for more memory than is available.

This is when memory overcommitment can happen. The computer might try to put more things into its memory than it can actually hold, kind of like trying to fit too many toys into a toy box.

But just like you might push down on the toys in the box to make more fit, a computer can try to make more memory available by "swapping" things in and out of the memory as needed. This can slow down the computer, kind of like how it might take you longer to find a toy in a crowded toy box.

So in short, memory overcommitment is when a computer tries to use more memory than is actually available, and it can slow down the computer as it tries to manage all of the things in its memory.