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Concept

Problem it Solves

Base & Bounds

Provides protection & relocation.

Segmentation

Solves internal fragmentation; supports sparse address spaces.

Splitting/Coalescing

Manages variable-sized allocations.

Virtual Address

Address generated by the process (its view of memory).

Physical Address

Actual address in RAM hardware.

MMU (Memory Management Unit)

Hardware that performs address translation.

Base/Bounds Registers

Hardware registers that enable dynamic relocation.

Segment

A logical contiguous part of an address space (code, heap, stack).

Internal Fragmentation

Wasted space within an allocated memory unit.

External Fragmentation

Wasted space between allocated memory units (free space is fragmented).

Segmentation Fault

An error caused by accessing an illegal (out-of-bounds) address.