Vol. 3A 3-17
PROTECTED-MODE MEMORY MANAGEMENT

3.5 SYSTEM DESCRIPTOR TYPES

When the S (descriptor type) flag in a segment descriptor is clear, the descriptor type is a system
descriptor. The processor recognizes the following types of system descriptors:
Local descriptor-table (LDT) segment descriptor.
Task-state segment (TSS) descriptor.
Call-gate descriptor.
Interrupt-gate descriptor.
Trap-gate descriptor.
Task-gate descriptor.
These descriptor types fall into two categories: system-segment descriptors and gate descriptors.
System-segment descriptors point to system segments (LDT and TSS segments). Gate descrip-
tors are in themselves “gates,” which hold pointers to procedure entry points in code segments
(call, interrupt, and trap gates) or which hold segment selectors for TSS’s (task gates).
Table 3-2 shows the encoding of the type field for system-segment descriptors and gate descrip-
tors. Note that system descriptors in IA-32e mode are 16 bytes instead of 8 bytes.
Table 3-2. System-Segment and Gate-Descriptor Types
Type Field Description
Decimal 11 10 9 8 32-Bit Mode IA-32e Mode
0 0000Reserved Upper 8 byte of an 16-byte
descriptor
1 000116-bit TSS (Available) Reserved
2 0010LDT LDT
3 001116-bit TSS (Busy) Reserved
4 010016-bit Call Gate Reserved
5 0101Task Gate Reserved
6 011016-bit Interrupt Gate Reserved
7 011116-bit Trap Gate Reserved
8 1000Reserved Reserved
9 100132-bit TSS (Available) 64-bit TSS (Available)
10 1010Reserved Reserved
11 101132-bit TSS (Busy) 64-bit TSS (Busy)
12 110032-bit Call Gate 64-bit Call Gate
13 1101Reserved Reserved
14 111032-bit Interrupt Gate 64-bit Interrupt Gate
15 111132-bit Trap Gate 64-bit Trap Gate