Table of Content  Branch Up  

Allocating Processes

When a process is loaded, memory is allocated to store the code and leave room for the process data. Since I am not providing support for a segmented model, both code and data will share a monolithic block in Linear space.

The upper portion (lowest addresses) contains the code; the data block follows and extends all the way down to the bottom of the designated space.

At loading time the Data block is only the space remaining in the last page occupied by the code. The process code is responsible for requesting memory to the OS is needed. The OS will allocate requested memory as contiguous as possible just below. This way, the space designated to the process will grow indefinitely only limited by the amount of physical memory available at allocation time.

The way processes utilize their data space is opt to the language Compiler. The OS and/or the CPU can help with support for different techniques (stack, heap, etc) but they won't dictate the way programming languages manage their data.