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Segmentation cannot be turned off on x86-32 processors (this is true for 64-bit mode as well, but beyond the scope of discussion), so many 32-bit operating systems simulate a flat memory model by setting all segments' bases to 0 in order to make segmentation neutral to programs.
The x86 and x86-64 segment descriptor has the following form: [3] Where the fields stand for: Base Address Starting memory address of the segment. Its length is 32 bits and it is created from the lower part bits 16 to 31, and the upper part bits 0 to 7, followed by bits 24 to 31.
Four registers are used to refer to four segments on the 16-bit x86 segmented memory architecture. DS (data segment), CS (code segment), SS (stack segment), and ES (extra segment). Another 16-bit register can act as an offset into a given segment, and so a logical address on this platform is written segment:offset, typically in hexadecimal ...
The primary defining characteristic of IA-32 is the availability of 32-bit general-purpose processor registers (for example, EAX and EBX), 32-bit integer arithmetic and logical operations, 32-bit offsets within a segment in protected mode, and the translation of segmented addresses to 32-bit linear addresses. The designers took the opportunity ...
Should 16-bit code need to run in a 32-bit environment while sharing memory (this happens e.g. when running OS/2 1.x programs on OS/2 2.0 and later), the LDT must be written in such a way that every flat (paged) address has also a selector in the LDT (typically this results in the LDT being filled with 64 KiB entries).
The Intel i386 and later processors add "386 protected mode", which uses 32-bit addressing, retains segmentation, and adds memory paging. In these processors, the segment table, rather than pointing to a page table for the segment, contains the segment address in linear memory. When paging is enabled, addresses in linear memory are then mapped ...
Flat memory model or linear memory model refers to a memory addressing paradigm in which "memory appears to the program as a single contiguous address space." [1] The CPU can directly (and linearly) address all of the available memory locations without having to resort to any sort of bank switching, memory segmentation or paging schemes.
x86-64, the 64-bit version of the x86 architecture, almost entirely removes segmentation in favor of the flat memory model used by almost all operating systems for the 386 or newer processors. In long mode, all segment offsets are ignored, except for the FS and GS segments; linear addresses are 64-bit rather than 32-bit, with the lowest 48 bits ...