A dispersed storage unit for use within a dispersed storage network, comprising: a physical memory; an interface; and characterized by a processing module operable to: receive, via the interface, registry information including a slice name assignment, the slice name assignment indicating a range of slice names corresponding to a plurality of potential data slices (42, 44, 46, 48), one of the potential data slices forming a portion of one of a plurality of potential data segments of one of a plurality of potential data objects encoded in accordance with an error coding dispersal storage function; allocate a portion of the physical memory to store the potential data slices based on the registry information; receive, via the interface, an actual data slice of an actual data segment of an actual data object to be stored within the dispersed storage unit, the slice name of the actual data slice including a virtual memory address of a virtual memory associated with the dispersed storage network; and generate a mapping of the virtual memory address of the actual data slice to a physical memory address of the physical memory storing the actual data slice. a physical memory; an interface; and characterized by a processing module operable to: receive, via the interface, registry information including a slice name assignment, the slice name assignment indicating a range of slice names corresponding to a plurality of potential data slices (42, 44, 46, 48), one of the potential data slices forming a portion of one of a plurality of potential data segments of one of a plurality of potential data objects encoded in accordance with an error coding dispersal storage function; allocate a portion of the physical memory to store the potential data slices based on the registry information; receive, via the interface, an actual data slice of an actual data segment of an actual data object to be stored within the dispersed storage unit, the slice name of the actual data slice including a virtual memory address of a virtual memory associated with the dispersed storage network; and generate a mapping of the virtual memory address of the actual data slice to a physical memory address of the physical memory storing the actual data slice. receive, via the interface, registry information including a slice name assignment, the slice name assignment indicating a range of slice names corresponding to a plurality of potential data slices (42, 44, 46, 48), one of the potential data slices forming a portion of one of a plurality of potential data segments of one of a plurality of potential data objects encoded in accordance with an error coding dispersal storage function; allocate a portion of the physical memory to store the potential data slices based on the registry information; receive, via the interface, an actual data slice of an actual data segment of an actual data object to be stored within the dispersed storage unit, the slice name of the actual data slice including a virtual memory address of a virtual memory associated with the dispersed storage network; and generate a mapping of the virtual memory address of the actual data slice to a physical memory address of the physical memory storing the actual data slice.