The range of virtual addresses that the operating system assigns to a user or separately running program is called an address space. This is the area of contiguous virtual addresses available for executing instructions and storing data.
The range of virtual addresses in an address space starts at zero and can extend to the highest address permitted by the operating system architecture.
OS provides each user with a unique address space and maintains the distinction between the programs and data belonging to each address space. Within each address space, the user can start multiple tasks, using task control blocks (TCBs) that allow multiprogramming.
In some ways a OS address space is like a UNIX process, and the address space identifier (ASID) is like a process ID (PID). Further, TCBs are like UNIX threads in that each operating system supports processing multiple instances of work concurrently.
However, the use of multiple virtual address spaces in OS holds some special advantages. Virtual addressing permits an addressing range that is greater than the central storage capabilities of the system. The use of multiple virtual address spaces provides this virtual addressing capability to each job in the system by assigning each job its own separate virtual address space. The potentially large number of address spaces provides the system with a large virtual addressing capacity.
With multiple virtual address spaces, errors are confined to one address space, except for errors in commonly addressable storage, thus improving system reliability and making error recovery easier. Programs in separate address spaces are protected from each other. Isolating data in its own address space also protects the data.
