How a Virtual Address Space Is Partitioned
Each process’ virtual address space is split into partitions. The address space is partitioned based on the underlying implementation of the operating system. Partitions vary slightly among the different Microsoft Windows kernels. Table 13-1 shows how each platform partitions a process’ address space.
As you can see, the 32-bit Windows kernel and 64-bit Windows kernel have nearly identical partitions; what differs are the partition sizes and locations. Let’s examine how the system uses each of these partitions.
Table 13-1. How a Process’ Address Space Is Partitioned
Partition | x86 32-Bit Windows | x86 32-Bit Windows with 3 GB User-Mode | x64 64-Bit Windows | IA-64 64-Bit Windows |
|---|---|---|---|---|
NULL-Pointer Assignment | 0x00000000 0x0000FFFF ... |
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