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Linear and Physical domains

When we express memory addresses as Linear (0 to 2^32 -1) we say them to be in the "Linear Domain". Addresses expressed as physical (as wired in the circuit) are said to be in the "Physical Domain".

Since Linear-to-Physical address translation is done as part of the bus cycle (using the Trans Matrix), the physical domain is mostly restricted to that low level context. General purpose registers and even the PC (Program Counter) manage Linear Addresses instead of Physical ones. We can say that "our CPU works in the Linear Domain".

Memory allocation, however, is done in the Physical Domain since it involves Trans Matrix population and efficient ways of using the available physical memory, as we shall see.