Segmentation

CS 537 Introduction to Operating Systems

Segmentation
Segmentation is a technique for breaking memory
up into logical pieces
Each piece is a grouping of related information

data segments for each process

code segments for each process
data segments for the OS
etc.

Like paging, use virtual addresses and use disk to

make memory look bigger than it really is
Segmentation can be implemented with or without
paging

Segmentation
P1 data

P2 code
print
function
P2 data

P1 code

OS Code

OS data

logical address space

OS stack

Addressing Segments
Lets first assume no paging in the system
User generates logical addresses
These addresses consist of a segment number and
an offset into the segment
Use segment number to index into a table
Table contains the physical address of the start of
the segment
often called the base address

Add the offset to the base and generate the

physical address
before doing this, check the offset against a limit
the limit is the size of the segment

Addressing Segments
limit
S

base

logical address
segment table

o < limit
no

error

yes

Physical Address

Segmentation Hardware
Sounds very similar to paging
Big difference segments can be variable in size
As with paging, to be effective hardware must be
used to translate logical address
Most systems provide segment registers
If a reference isnt found in one of the segment
registers
trap to operating system
OS does lookup in segment table and loads new
segment descriptor into the register
return control to the user and resume

Again, similar to paging

Protection and Sharing

Like page tables, each process usually gets
its own segment table
Unlike page tables, there usually exists a
global segment table for everyone
this, however, is usually used by OS

Access rights for segment are usually

included in table entry
Multiple processes can share a segment

Protection and Sharing

limit base

200

0 1000 200

1200

1 3500 9000
LDT

2000
limit base
0 500

2500

2300
2500

1 9000 20000

3000

GDT

9000

limit base
0 1000 200
1 300 2000
LDT

12500

Segmentation Issues
Entire segment is either in memory or on
disk
Variable sized segments leads to external
fragmentation in memory
Must find a space big enough to place
segment into
May need to swap out some segments to
bring a new segment in

Segmentation with Paging

Most architectures support segmentation and
paging
Basic idea,
segments exist in virtual address space
base address in segment descriptor table is a virtual
address
use paging mechanism to translate this virtual address
into a physical address

Now an entire segment does not have to be in

memory at one time
only the part of the segment that we need will be in
memory

Linear Address
The base address gotten from the segment
descriptor table is concatenated with the
offset
This new address is often referred to as a
linear address
This is the address that is translated by the
paging hardware

virtual address from user

descriptor
offset

limit

base

segment table
linear address

directory

page

offset
page frame

PT directory

directory base

page table