The registers FS
and GS
are segment registers. They have no processor-defined purpose, but instead are given purpose by the OS's running them. In Windows 64-bit the GS
register is used to point to operating system defined structures. FS
and GS
are commonly used by OS kernels to access thread-specific memory. In windows, the GS
register is used to manage thread-specific memory. The linux kernel uses GS
to access cpu-specific memory.