A 32-bit system with 4 KB pages uses a single-level page table with 4-byte entries. How large is each process’s page table?
Correct answer A. 4 MB
Explanation
There are 2^32 / 2^12 = 2^20 pages, and each needs a 4-byte entry, so the table is 2^20 x 4 = 4 MB per process. That is wasteful for processes using little of their address space, which is why systems use hierarchical (multi-level) page tables, hashed page tables or inverted page tables. The answer 1 MB forgets to multiply by the entry size.
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