diff --git a/mem/physical.cc b/mem/physical.cc
index c69cfd538..a00c59139 100644
--- a/mem/physical.cc
+++ b/mem/physical.cc
@@ -114,26 +114,6 @@ PhysicalMemory::addPort(std::string portName)
     return memoryPortList[portName];
 }
 
-//
-// little helper for better prot_* error messages
-//
-void
-PhysicalMemory::prot_access_error(Addr addr, int size, Command func)
-{
-    panic("invalid physical memory access!\n"
-          "%s: %i(addr=%#x, size=%d) out of range (max=%#x)\n",
-          name(), func, addr, size, pmem_size - 1);
-}
-
-void
-PhysicalMemory::prot_memset(Addr addr, uint8_t val, int size)
-{
-    if (addr + size >= pmem_size)
-        prot_access_error(addr, size, Write);
-
-    memset(pmem_addr + addr - base_addr, val, size);
-}
-
 int
 PhysicalMemory::deviceBlockSize()
 {
@@ -162,8 +142,7 @@ PhysicalMemory::doAtomicAccess(Packet &pkt)
 void
 PhysicalMemory::doFunctionalAccess(Packet &pkt)
 {
-    if (pkt.addr + pkt.size >= pmem_size)
-            prot_access_error(pkt.addr, pkt.size, pkt.cmd);
+    assert(pkt.addr + pkt.size < pmem_size);
 
     switch (pkt.cmd) {
       case Read:
diff --git a/mem/physical.hh b/mem/physical.hh
index 854886a27..658ba18ff 100644
--- a/mem/physical.hh
+++ b/mem/physical.hh
@@ -107,15 +107,9 @@ class PhysicalMemory : public Memory
     PhysicalMemory(const std::string &n);
     virtual ~PhysicalMemory();
 
-  protected:
-    // error handling for prot_* functions
-    void prot_access_error(Addr addr, int size, Command func);
-
   public:
     int deviceBlockSize();
 
-    void prot_memset(Addr addr, uint8_t val, int size);
-
     // fast back-door memory access for vtophys(), remote gdb, etc.
     // uint64_t phys_read_qword(Addr addr) const;
   private:
diff --git a/mem/port.hh b/mem/port.hh
index a86c9d727..5c89c74a5 100644
--- a/mem/port.hh
+++ b/mem/port.hh
@@ -212,9 +212,6 @@ class Port
         should not need to be virtual, since it can be implemented in
         terms of writeBlobFunctional().  However, it shouldn't be
         performance-critical either, so it could be if we wanted to.
-        Not even sure if this is actually needed anywhere (there's a
-        prot_memset on the old functional memory that's never used),
-        but Nate claims it is.
     */
     void memsetBlobFunctional(Addr addr, uint8_t val, int size);