SpeicherlayoutOptimierungen

Speicherlayout, or memory layout, describes how a program’s address space is organized at runtime. It typically includes the code (text) segment, read-only data, initialized data, uninitialized data (BSS), the heap, and the stack. The exact arrangement depends on the architecture (for example 32‑ versus 64‑bit, little- versus big-endian), the executable format (such as ELF on Unix-like systems or PE on Windows), the operating system, and compiler and linker options. In a conventional process, the text segment is mapped into a protected region, followed by rodata and data, with the heap allocated from runtime facilities and generally growing upward, while the stack grows downward. Modern systems also employ virtual memory and security features such as address space layout randomization (ASLR) to vary base addresses between executions.

The memory layout has practical implications for performance and safety. Cache locality, paging behavior, and TLB efficiency depend on how code and data are positioned and accessed. The separation between stack and heap provides isolation between function call frames and dynamically allocated objects. In managed languages, a separate heap and a runtime that handles garbage collection are common, whereas native languages rely more on manual management or runtime libraries. ABI and alignment rules influence padding and data placement, affecting access speed and memory usage. Understanding memory layout is useful for debugging, performance optimization, and security considerations, including feature support for guard pages and non‑executable regions.