From owner-freebsd-performance@FreeBSD.ORG Tue May 6 05:58:19 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 AF17337B401 for ; Tue, 6 May 2003 05:58:19 -0700 (PDT) Received: from otter3.centtech.com (moat3.centtech.com [207.200.51.50]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C802643F85 for ; Tue, 6 May 2003 05:58:18 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from anderson@centtech.com) Received: from centtech.com (electron.centtech.com [204.177.173.173]) by otter3.centtech.com (8.12.3/8.12.3) with ESMTP id h46CwH56092814; Tue, 6 May 2003 07:58:17 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from anderson@centtech.com) Message-ID: <3EB7B156.2030701@centtech.com> Date: Tue, 06 May 2003 07:57:58 -0500 From: Eric Anderson User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i386; en-US; rv:1.0.1) Gecko/20020823 Netscape/7.0 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Terry Lambert References: <3801.172.182.185.39.1052141430.squirrel@bluhayz.homeunix.org> <20030505180224.M13866@xy.hartford.edu> <3EB6A981.1030504@centtech.com> <3EB7353F.373470F2@mindspring.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit 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 12:58:20 -0000 Terry Lambert wrote: > Eric Anderson wrote: > >>>If you look at the way x86 architecture is designed (and somebody else can >>>feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), but system memory is often used in >>>the caching/shadowing of BIOS. This is where a lot of system memory often >>>goes before the OS is loaded - also, as Rob said, the kernel itself will >>>take up memory before the rest of the OS is booted. >> >>I believe that the BIOS steals the ram prior to the OS booting, so that >>the box does not show that as part of the total ram.. Like: > > > Since the BIOS is where FreeBSD obtains the "real memory" number, > this is pretty unlikely; the BIOS would just lie to FreeBSD about > the number, and be done with it. > [..snipped the blabla..] 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.. :) Eric -- ------------------------------------------------------------------ Eric Anderson Systems Administrator Centaur Technology Attitudes are contagious, is yours worth catching? ------------------------------------------------------------------