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 managementunit) 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 bitapplication(?) 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)