Memory segmentation: Difference between revisions

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Revision as of 00:44, 11 October 2008

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In computing, '''memory segmentation''' is one of the most common ways to achieve [[memory protection]]; another common one is [[paging]]. In a computer system using segmentation, an instruction operand that refers to a memory ___location includes a value that identifies a segment and an offset within that segment. A segment has a set of permissions, and a length, associated with it. If the currently running [[Process (computing)|process]] is allowed by the permissions to make the type of reference to memory that it is attempting to make, and the offset within the segment is within the range specified by the length of the segment, the reference is permitted; otherwise, a hardware [[Exception handling|exception]] is deliveredraised.

In addition to the set of permissions and length, a segment also has associated with it information indicating where the segment is located in memory. It may also have a flag indicating whether the segment is present in main memory or not; if the segment is not present in main memory, an exception is deliveredraised, and the [[operating system]] will read the segment into memory from secondary storage. The information indicating where the segment is located in memory might be the address of the first ___location in the segment, or might be the address of a [[page table]] for the segment, if the segmentation is implemented with [[paging]]. In the first case, if a reference to a ___location within a segment is made, the offset within the segment will be added to address of the first ___location in the segment to give the address in memory of the referred-to item; in the second case, the offset of the segment is translated to a memory address using the page table.

In most systems in which a segment doesn't have a page table associated with it, the address of the first ___location in the segment is an address in main memory; in those systems, no [[paging]] is done. In the [[Intel 80386]] and later, that address can either be an address in main memory, if paging is not enabled, or an address in a paged "linear" address space, if paging is enabled.