From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Nov 13 21:23:50 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id ED60916A403 for ; Mon, 13 Nov 2006 21:23:50 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kris@obsecurity.org) Received: from elvis.mu.org (elvis.mu.org [192.203.228.196]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 765E043D78 for ; Mon, 13 Nov 2006 21:23:43 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from kris@obsecurity.org) Received: from obsecurity.dyndns.org (elvis.mu.org [192.203.228.196]) by elvis.mu.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E62E61A3C19; Mon, 13 Nov 2006 13:23:33 -0800 (PST) Received: by obsecurity.dyndns.org (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 1C14D51315; Mon, 13 Nov 2006 16:23:23 -0500 (EST) Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 16:23:22 -0500 From: Kris Kennaway To: "Reuben A. Popp" Message-ID: <20061113212322.GA53818@xor.obsecurity.org> References: <200611131514.29522.rapopp@eastcentral.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="EeQfGwPcQSOJBaQU" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200611131514.29522.rapopp@eastcentral.edu> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.2i Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Maximum amount of ram? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 21:23:51 -0000 --EeQfGwPcQSOJBaQU Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Mon, Nov 13, 2006 at 04:14:28PM -0500, Reuben A. Popp wrote: > Good afternoon everyone, >=20 > Can someone please tell me what is the maximum amount of physical ram tha= t the=20 > i386 branch of fbsd can handle? We're looking at purchasing a really bee= fy=20 > machine here and I would like to make sure that it can utilize the amount= of=20 > ram that will be installed. The i386 architecture is incapable of addressing more than 4GB at once (since it's fundamentally 32-bit). So you have to use a hack called PAE to allow the kernel to juggle between 4GB subsets of a larger amount of RAM (up to 64GB on FreeBSD). See the handbook for documentation of PAE and its limitations. If you really need to make efficient use of such a large amount of RAM, consider purchasing an amd64-compatible system instead. Kris --EeQfGwPcQSOJBaQU Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.5 (FreeBSD) iD8DBQFFWOJKWry0BWjoQKURAgDEAKDsgJxv+mCSXQjT2ZJR2tVCjrKSdgCdGM33 e29x7+yRnSpZWtP+uydrsL8= =XQtr -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --EeQfGwPcQSOJBaQU--