Physical Address

What Does Physical Address Mean?

In IT, a physical address refers to either a memory location, identified in the form of a binary number, or a media access control (MAC) address.

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A physical address is also known as a binary address or a real address.

Techopedia Explains Physical Address

In computing, physical address refers to a memory address or the location of a memory cell in the main memory. It is used by both hardware and software for accessing data. Software, however, does not use physical addresses directly; instead, it accesses memory using a virtual address. A hardware component known as the memory management unit (MMU) is responsible for translating a virtual address to a physical address.

In networking, physical address refers to a computer’s MAC address, which is a unique identifier associated with a network adapter that is used for identifying a computer in a network.

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Margaret Rouse

Margaret Rouse is an award-winning technical writer and teacher known for her ability to explain complex technical subjects to a non-technical, business audience. Over the past twenty years her explanations have appeared on TechTarget websites and she's been cited as an authority in articles by the New York Times, Time Magazine, USA Today, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Discovery Magazine.Margaret's idea of a fun day is helping IT and business professionals learn to speak each other’s highly specialized languages. If you have a suggestion for a new definition or how to improve a technical explanation, please email Margaret or contact her…