Back Seqmentləşdirmə Azerbaijani Segmentació de memòria Catalan Segmentace paměti Czech Segmentierung (Speicherverwaltung) German Segmentación de memoria Spanish Segmentazio (memoria) Basque قطعه‌بندی Persian Segmentation (informatique) French מקטעי זיכרון HE Memóriaszegmentálás Hungarian

Memory segmentation

This article is about segmented computer memory. For segments in object code, see Object file.

Memory segmentation is an operating system memory management technique of dividing a computer's primary memory into segments or sections. In a computer system using segmentation, a reference to a memory location includes a value that identifies a segment and an offset (memory location) within that segment. Segments or sections are also used in object files of compiled programs when they are linked together into a program image and when the image is loaded into memory.

Segments usually correspond to natural divisions of a program such as individual routines or data tables[1] so segmentation is generally more visible to the programmer than paging alone.[2] Segments may be created for program modules, or for classes of memory usage such as code segments and data segments.[3] Certain segments may be shared between programs.[1][2]

Segmentation was originally invented as a method by which system software could isolate software processes (tasks) and data they are using. It was intended to increase reliability of the systems running multiple processes simultaneously.[4]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference holt1961 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference englander was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
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  4. ^ "1.2 Memory Management". AMD64 Technology AMD64 Architecture Programmer's Manual Volume 2: System Programming (PDF). Vol. 2. Advanced Micro Devices. 2018. p. 5.

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