A memory management system including mapping of physically non-contiguous memory segments into logically contiguous blocks and releasing of memory segments based on the number of references and segment ownership

A digital memory management system for providing access to a digital memory (20) from at least one program process executing in an operating system for at least one digital processor, characterized by

• at least one memory management object (30, 50, 60), comprising a mapping structure (32a, 32b) for mapping a plurality of physically non-contiguous memory segments (22a, 22b) into a logically contiguous memory block, each of said physically non-contiguous memory segments being provided with a reference (41) to an owner (40, 40a, 40b), of the respective memory segment;
• at least one method for providing random access for said at least one program process to said logically contiguous memory block;
• and
• at least one memory reference handling method for monitoring the number of references from said at least one program process to each respective physically non-contiguous memory segment, said at least one memory reference handling method being arranged to release any of said physically non-contiguous memory segments, when or if it is found not to be in use by any of said at least one program process.