Journal Entry Week 4 (30 minutes)

This week we learned about paging, address translation, and how the operating system uses page tables. We practiced taking a virtual address, separating it into the VPN and the offset, finding the page table entry, and building the physical address. These topics showed me how memory is organized and how each process gets its own virtual view of memory.

In simple terms, paging is a way for the operating system to divide memory into equal sized parts. A virtual address is what the program uses. The operating system uses the page table to translate it into a physical address. The VPN tells us which page we need and the offset tells us the exact place inside that page. I understand the idea, but I still have trouble when I work with long binary numbers. Sometimes I forget how many bits go to the VPN or to the offset.

The hardest part for me this week was doing a full address translation on my own. I know the steps, but I get confused when the numbers are long or when there are many parts in the problem. I also feel pressure because the quizzes have been long and I have been tired. I worked on PA4 for many hours and still could not finish it. On top of this, the exam in a few days makes me nervous and adds more stress.

My aha moment was learning that the offset never changes. That helped the process make more sense. I think the next topics may talk about multi level page tables or TLBs, which can make memory access faster.

These topics connect to my major because understanding memory is important in cybersecurity. It helps explain how systems protect data and how attacks can happen in memory. Even though this week was difficult, I can see why these ideas matter and how they will help me in the future.