> "Mak" nospam.com> wrote in message
> news:u0vPBv$6GHA.2248@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...

>> artificially limited, yes, by license, nothing to do with it being 32-bit
>> OS.

>
> I'm not sure what you are talking about. Can you explain? A 32bit OS is
> indeed limited to 4GB because that is the largest number
> that can be represented by a 32bit number. Memory is accessed through
> pointers, and when 32bits are the largest size that are
> supported natively, then the largest memory address accessible is
> 4,294,967,296, which equals 4GB. The artificial parts are that
> there is a small chunk of memory (less than 640KB) which is unavailable
> due to system use, and that 3GB is the normal maximum
> because of the way Windows partitions RAM into kernel and user mode
> sections (but that's about virtual memory, not physical.)
>

>> As to your question about video card with 1 GB - of course it will have
>> an
>> effect of how much RAM you see under 4GB limited (I'd like to enforce:
>> limitation is artificial, licence says: up to 4GB of RAM) OS, you'd have
>> to
>> map these addresses somewhere below 4GB barrier for CPU to access. On the
>> other hand, if you would run Server 32-bit, such addresses can be
>> re-mapped
>> to above 4GB.
>>
>> You'll see somewhat below 3GB of RAM on such system, my guess 2.4 - 2.8
>> GB,
>> but that depends on many things, motherboard, BIOS version, BIOS
>> settings,
>> other (PCI) devices that have to reserve addresses, Service Pack version,
>> drivers.

>
> Again, you'll have to explain your logic here. Accessing system RAM has
> nothing to do with accessing video RAM (other than that
> they both use the word "RAM"). There is no occasion where the same
> pointer would be used to access both (it makes no sense to do
> so.) They are separate entities just as a pointer to a block on a hard
> drive is different from a pointer to RAM.
>
>
> --
> Alec S.
> news/alec->synetech/cjb/net
>
>