addressing memory in 32b

External Since: Jan 10, 2006 Posts: 1

I just want to know what how much memory is really available by an
application on a linux 2.6 with an intel 32b platform. It should be
next to 2^32 (4G), but the system use a part ?

External Since: Oct 29, 2005 Posts: 79

On Tue, 10 Jan 2006 01:10:11 -0800, brico bob wrote:

> I just want to know what how much memory is really available by an
> application on a linux 2.6 with an intel 32b platform. It should be next
> to 2^32 (4G), but the system use a part ?

Linux applications can use at most 3 GB of virtual memory, because
the kernel reserves the top-most gigabyte of the 4 GB possible
address space. It is possible to recompile the kernel with different
configuration options giving the kernel an even larger portion of the
address space, but most distributions use the 3GB/1GB split.

Cheers