memory protection
<memory management> A system to prevent one process corrupting the memory
(or other resources) of any other, including the operating system. Memory
protection usually relies on a combination of hardware (a memory management
unit) and software to allocate memory to processes and handle exceptions.
The effectiveness of memory protection varies from one operating system to
another. In most versions of Unix it is almost impossible to corrupt another
process' memory, except in some archaic implementations and Lunix (not Linux!).
Under Microsoft Windows (version? hardware?) any 16 bit application(?) can
circumvent the memory protection, often leading to one or more GPFs. Currently
(April 1996) neither Microsoft Windows 3.1, Windows 95, nor Mac OS offer memory
protection. Windows NT has it, and Mac OS System 8 will offer a form of memory
protection.
[MS DOS EMM386 relevant?]
(1996-09-10)
Nearby terms:
memory management « Memory Management Unit « memory
mapped I/O « memory protection » memory smash
» Memory Type Range Registers » MEMS
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