Importance

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Abstract

A computer system has a set of memory module slots, each of which may receive a memory module or may be left empty. The memory slots are arranged to accept at least two different types of memory modules having different amounts of memory storage. Each type of memory module generates a module type signal which denotes the type of the module and thus the amount of memory storage in the module. Whenever the system is powered on or reset, the system's memory initialization software analyzes the module type signals generated by the memory modules which are installed in memory slots. Each memory module is assigned a physical address range based solely on the size of the memory module and the slot in which it is located, regardless of what other memory modules are being used. The computer system thereby determines which portions of the computer's address space will be used for primary memory. The computer system is a multitasking computer system which has a virtual memory management system. Once the addresses occupied by memory modules have been identified, the primary memory is divided into a set of pages. The usage of these pages are governed by the computer system's virtual memory management system, which guarantees that all memory references to primary memory will reference only addresses in the aforementioned set of pages.

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First Claim