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Linear Memory-Space Segments

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A linear memory-space segment is the classical type of segment that display hardware uses. The linear memory-space segment conforms to the following model:

  • It virtualizes video memory located on the graphics adapter.

  • The GPU accesses it directly; that is, without redirection through page mapping.

  • It's managed linearly in a one-dimensional address space.

The driver sets the Flags member of the DXGK_SEGMENTDESCRIPTOR structure to 0 to specify a linear memory-space segment. However, the driver can set the following bit-field flags to indicate other segment support:

  • CpuVisible to indicate that the segment is CPU-accessible.

  • UseBanking to indicate that the segment is divided into banks.

The following figure shows a visual representation of a linear memory-space segment.

Diagram illustrating a linear memory-space segment with virtualized video memory and GPU access.