Need help understanding memory models, cpu modes and address translation

[Joel A Fernandes]

On Sun, Jul 17, 2011 at 1:24 AM, Vaibhav Jain <vjoss197 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks a lot Joel! This is a great explanation.
> Just one more question. I used to think that the compiler always
> assigns/generates starting from 0 as Mulyadi has also mentioned.
> In the case when Segmentation(intel-style) is being used how does the
> compiler assigns
> addresses?
>

The compiler just generates code as if segmentation is not being
used.I'm not familiar with segmentation in x86 Protected mode. Further
because Linux doesn't uses segmentation (the logical addresses are
one-to-one mapped to virtual addresses) so neither have I really cared
about how it works ;) The compiler just generates code as if
segmentation is not being used. But I'd say some google searches on
"Global Descriptor Table" would give you some pointers.

You shouldn't worry about segmentation too much because virtual
addressing achieves everything it does and is more flexible. I'd say
ignore segmentation and focus on paging. :)

Thanks,
Joel