Frameaddress

Frameaddress is a term used in computing to refer to the address of a memory frame within a fixed-size block of physical memory or within a frame buffer. A frame is a contiguous region of memory used in paging and buffering, and the frameaddress identifies the base location of that region.

In paging systems, an address is typically decomposed into a frame number and an offset within the frame. The frameaddress points to the base of the corresponding physical frame in memory, and the offset selects a particular byte or word inside that frame. The operating system maintains mappings from virtual pages to physical frames via page tables, with the memory management unit translating virtual addresses to physical frameaddresses. A translation lookaside buffer speeds this process by caching frequently used frameaddresses.

In graphics and video hardware, a frameaddress identifies where a frame in a frame buffer is stored in memory. Frameaddresses are used by display controllers and DMA engines to fetch successive frames for rendering or scanning out to a display, supporting techniques such as double buffering to reduce visual tearing.

In embedded and hardware contexts, a frameaddress may be stored in a frame address register or provided to a peripheral to locate a frame of data, such as an image stream or video frame. Programs and devices may operate with frameaddresses in terms of frame numbers and offsets, or as byte-addressable base addresses, depending on the memory architecture and the size of each frame.

Notes: the concept differs from a stack frame or an object frame, though terminology can overlap across domains. Common related terms include page, page frame number, frame buffer, and memory management unit.