Segmentation

Introduction

Typically, the logical address space of a process is composed of different type of segments:

• code – one segment per code module.

• static variables – one segment per module containing static variables.

• heap memory – one segment.

• shared memory – one segment per shared region.

• stack – one segment.

• Different segments may have different sizes.

In a segmentation architecture, the segments of a process are manipulated separately.

• Dynamic partitioning may be used to allocate each segment.

• As a consequence, a process may not be contiguous in memory.

• Even, some segments may not be in main memory.

Memory management unit (MMU)