From owner-freebsd-performance@FreeBSD.ORG Tue May 6 08:05:30 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-performance@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0CF2137B401 for ; Tue, 6 May 2003 08:05:30 -0700 (PDT) Received: from puffin.mail.pas.earthlink.net (puffin.mail.pas.earthlink.net [207.217.120.139]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 76F6443FAF for ; Tue, 6 May 2003 08:05:29 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from tlambert2@mindspring.com) Received: from pool0297.cvx40-bradley.dialup.earthlink.net ([216.244.43.42] helo=mindspring.com) by puffin.mail.pas.earthlink.net with asmtp (SSLv3:RC4-MD5:128) (Exim 3.33 #1) id 19D40R-0000iP-00; Tue, 06 May 2003 08:05:23 -0700 Message-ID: <3EB7CEE9.BBB2A626@mindspring.com> Date: Tue, 06 May 2003 08:04:09 -0700 From: Terry Lambert X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.79 [en] (Win98; U) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Eric Anderson References: <3801.172.182.185.39.1052141430.squirrel@bluhayz.homeunix.org> <20030505180224.M13866@xy.hartford.edu> <3EB6A981.1030504@centtech.com> <3EB7353F.373470F2@mindspring.com> <3EB7B156.2030701@centtech.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-ELNK-Trace: b1a02af9316fbb217a47c185c03b154d40683398e744b8a4a12b462b3a0dc251e70bad61a282b38c350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c350badd9bab72f9c cc: freebsd-performance@freebsd.org cc: Kyle Rollin Subject: Re: Real and availible RAM X-BeenThere: freebsd-performance@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Performance/tuning List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 06 May 2003 15:05:30 -0000 Eric Anderson wrote: > I think you missed my point - I wasn't saying that FreeBSD is hiding > anything, nor was I talking about the "missing 6mb problem" directly. > You pretty much repeated my point though - "Since the BIOS is where > FreeBSD obtains the "real memory" number" - which is what I said, that > the BIOS takes the physical RAM, subtracts what it needs for devices > like video cards (that "borrow" from physical main memory), then reports > that result to any OS/Apps/etc that ask for it. That is why my system > doesn't show the 256Mb of memory it has in it, it shows something like > 224Mb (32Mb is set aside for the video card).. > > Unless I am totally missing your point this morning.. :) You are. The video memory you are talking about in this case is accounted for by the AGP or a similar video driver. It is not sucked up by the BIOS. At most, the BIOS will "eat" a few K (usually, no more than 4K) that is unknown to the OS. Again, you really need to read the machdep.c code, particularly the "memsize()" function. -- Terry