16 Jan
2007
16 Jan
'07
7:59 p.m.
1) To prevent one process overwriting the memory
belonging to another
process.
Segments did not HAVE to be 64k, that was their maximum size, the
minimum
was 128 bytes.
2) To provide virtual memory.
3) To protect the executive from processes.
4) To allow non contiguous physical address space to appear as a
logical contiguous address space
5) To provide mapping out of faulty blocks of memory
and probably as many reasons I have not thought of off the top of my
head.
Consider the time this was introduced. It was a $5K personal
computer from 1982 whose base configuration was 2 floppies and no
hard disk. Just about any of the above was probably held to be
superfluous by most manufacturers in that context.