When your computer runs programs, it doesn’t store everything in one large block of memory. Instead, memory is carefully divided and organized so that multiple applications can run safely and efficiently at the same time. Two important concepts help make this possible: paging and segmentation . These terms often sound technical, but the ideas behind them are actually quite simple. In this post, we’ll explain paging and segmentation conceptually , without formulas or heavy theory, and show why they still matter in modern systems. Why Memory Needs to Be Divided Memory is a shared resource. Your operating system must: Run many programs at once Keep programs from interfering with each other Use memory efficiently Protect system stability If memory were used as one continuous block: Programs could overwrite each other Security would be weak Crashes would be common To solve this, operating systems divide memory into manageable pieces . This builds dir...
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