address translation
(1) The process of resolving a 0:32 memory reference into a physical memory address. When using the paged memory option in the 80386 processor, a memory pointer passed by an application consists of Page Directory and Page Table entries, and an offset within a physical page. This is resolved by the processor into a 32-bit physical memory address. The validity and legality of the memory reference is also checked during the translation process, and a general protection exception is generated if necessary.
(2) The process of resolving a 16:16 memory reference into a physical memory address using a process's local descriptor table. The validity and legality of the memory reference is also checked during the translation process, and a general protection exception is generated if necessary.