(No eXecute) A method for specifying areas of memory that cannot be used for execution. NX is a security feature designed to prevent viruses and other malware from inserting instructions into memory and executing them.
Microsoft implemented NX in Service Pack 2 for Windows XP. However, the CPU's virtual memory function must also support NX by providing a flag (an indicator) for each virtual page that can be turned on by the software. AMD's 64-bit CPUs and Intel's Itanium CPUs (also 64 bit) were the first to support NX. See virtual memory. See also no-op.
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