Editing Protected mode (section)

==== Protected mode ====
In protected mode, the {{Mono|segment_part}} is replaced by a 16-bit ''selector'', in which the 13 upper bits (bit 3 to bit 15) contain the index of an ''entry'' inside a ''descriptor table''. The next bit (bit 2) specifies whether the operation is used with the GDT or the LDT. The lowest two bits (bit 1 and bit 0) of the selector are combined to define the privilege of the request, where the values of 0 and 3 represent the highest and the lowest privilege, respectively.  This means that the byte offset of descriptors in the descriptor table is the same as the 16-bit selector, provided the lower three bits are zeroed.

The descriptor table entry defines the real ''linear'' address of the segment, a limit value for the segment size, and some attribute bits (flags).