Re: Why can OS kernel only use maximum 2GB memory?

In article <1144996038.860569.163510@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"robertwessel2@xxxxxxxxx" <spamtrap@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Liang Yang wrote:

For a 32 bit OS running on a 32bit IA processor, why is 2GB the maximum
memory used by OS kernel while application process can use more than 2GB
memory? Which factor decide this limitation?

To expand on th other posts, there is no such requirement or
limitation.

It is perfectly possible to create an OS where the kernel and
applications share essentially no address space, which would allow you
to dedicate 4GB to each simultaneously.

This is what Mac OS X does, both on Intel and on PowerPC.

-Eric

--
Eric Albert ejalbert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://outofcheese.org/

.

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