34. Differences between 16-bit and 32-bit Memory Modes

• Understanding segments is an essential part of programming in assembly language.

• In the family of 8086-based processors, the term segment has two meanings:

  1. A block of memory of discrete size, called a physical segment. The number of bytes in a physical memory segment is

     • (a) 64K for 16-bit processors

     • (b) 4 gigabytes for 32-bit processors.

  2. A variable-sized block of memory, called a logical segment occupied by a program's code or data.