Describe and explain how the operating system abstracts memory management away from a systems programmer.

First Lets define the terms:Operating System - System software that manages computer hardware, userspace programs and essential kernel space programsMemory Management - A system that can dynamically allocate hardware resources specifically RAM (random access memory) to specific user/kernel-mode programs.Systems Programmer - A programmer that develops programs to be run in a software system but are not user-facing ie backends. This includes web servers, reverse proxies etc.Now for the answer:It is essential that only the operating system can manipulate the memory of a program.The operating system provides an API to allocate and deallocate memory for a program this is the Interrupt Service Routine. The programmer simply makes a call to this in their code.In a high level language such as C this would be:```#include <stdlib.h>#define SIZE_OF_ARRAY 10int main(){   // ALLOCATE AN ARRAY OF INTEGERS USING DYNAMIC ALLOCATION   int array = (int) malloc(SIZE_OF_ARRAY * sizeof(int)); }```Reasons this has been abstracted:- Massively simplifies the use of dynamic memory- Makes the code more portable across different platforms and ISA- The lower level allocation can be better optimised and tested- You need a higher level of access than the userspace has so it would not be possible to do in user space only code.This is only a brief answer a whiteboard and auditory description would be considerably more helpful.

Answered by Kyle C. Computing tutor

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