A method and apparatus for an apparatus and method for reduction of power
consumption in OS that use flat segmentation memory model are described.
In one embodiment, the method includes monitoring a segment register to
detect a segment register update operation. Once the segment register
update operation is detected, a code/data segment contained within the
segment register is identified as one of a segmented code/data segment
and a flat code/data segment. Once detected, the segment register is
updated according to whether the segment is flat or segmented.
Accordingly, when a segment register read is performed, one or more
updated bits within the segment register are used to identify the
code/data read from the segment register as either flat or segmented.