Segmentation is a memory management technique used in operating systems to divide the memory into variable-sized parts called segments. Each segment can be allocated to a process, and the details about each segment are stored in a table called a segment table. Segmentation provides several advantages, including:
- Flexibility: Segmentation provides a higher degree of flexibility than paging, as segments can be of variable size, and processes can be designed to have multiple segments, allowing for more fine-grained memory allocation.
- Sharing: Segmentation allows for sharing of memory segments between processes, which can be useful for inter-process communication or for sharing code libraries.
- Protection: Segmentation provides a level of protection between segments, preventing one process from accessing or modifying another processs memory segment, which can help increase the security and stability of the system.
However, segmentation also has some disadvantages, such as external fragmentation as the free space gets broken down into smaller pieces along with the processes being loaded and removed from the main memory, resulting in a lot of memory waste.
