> to any process. suppose i start a program that allocates 8k but between > the malloc and the memset, another program uses the last available > page in memory, then my original program faults.
yes, and you'll always have to deal with that in some form or another. i've started a program, it allocates some memory, is guaranteed to have it (unlike the current system), but later, some other program allocates enough memory that mine can't get any more, memory that mine needs to finish (perhaps during an output phase). my original program fails, even though the system guarantees physical memory for all virtual memory allocations.
