lowaddress

Lowaddress is a term used in computing to describe the portion of an address space that contains the smallest numerical addresses, in contrast to highaddress, which refers to the larger addresses near the end of the range. The exact boundary between lowaddress and highaddress varies by architecture and context, and the terms are descriptive rather than formal nomenclature. They are often used when discussing memory layout, hardware addressing, and performance considerations.

In hardware and firmware contexts, lowaddress commonly refers to the region where core system memory, boot firmware, and early hardware devices are mapped. On many architectures, the lower portion of memory is reserved for essential functions or for straightforward decoding by memory-mapped I/O devices. Because devices and controllers are frequently designed to respond to low address lines, designers sometimes assign peripheral registers and buffers to lowaddress ranges.

In operating systems, the distinction between lowaddress and highaddress frequently appears in memory management discussions. For example, some kernels distinguish low memory—addresses that can be directly mapped by the kernel—from high memory, which may require indirect mappings. This separation helps the system manage memory efficiently on machines with large RAM while optimizing performance and page table usage.

Security and software practices also touch lowaddress in areas such as address space layout, where researchers consider the distribution of commonly used code and data regions. Modern systems employ protections like ASLR to randomize address locations, including lower regions, to reduce predictability.

See also: address space, memory management, memory-mapped I/O, high memory, low memory.