List down the benefits of per-process address space

Operating systems questions and answers, OS University exam questions, list down the advantages of per-process address space

Question:

Most operating systems provide each process with its own address space by providing a level of indirection between virtual and physical addresses. Give the benefits of this approach.

 

Answer:

There are a number of benefits including:

Independence: Each process can use (nearly) all of the address space without worrying about whatever other processes might currently be running.

Portability: the size of physical memory is hidden behind the level of indirection. Programmers do not need to know about the precise amount of RAM installed on the machine.

Protection: a process cannot by default read or modify information within another process's address space.

Static relocation: having the extra layer of indirection means that processes can be linked at a fixed virtual address, and so do not need to be relocated at load-time.

Sharing: the same piece of physical memory can be mapped into multiple address spaces (e.g. shared libraries, kernel).

 

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