Mastering Linux Kernel Development

The illusion called address space

Modern-day computing platforms are expected to handle a plethora of processes efficiently. Operating systems thus must deal with allocating unique memory to all contending processes within the physical memory (often finite) and also ensure their reliable execution. With multiple processes contending and executing simultaneously (multi-tasking), the operating system must ensure that the memory allocation of every process is protected from accidental access by another process.

To address this issue, the kernel provides a level of abstraction between the process and the physical memory called virtual address space. Virtual address space is the process' view of memory; it is how the running program views the ...