Nicolas Alvarez wrote:

>> Note to self: 3Gb in your system doesn't get around the fact that most 
>> XP programs are only able to address 2...
>>
> 
> I think there is a way to make it address up to 3GB; but if you have 
> 4GB, you can't use it all unless you have a 64-bit system.

There is a way, but it's not certain to be stable.

XP, being a 32bit OS, allows each program to address up to 4GB of 
memory.  However, this is partitioned into 2GB for the program and 2GB 
for the system.  How having more RAM (say, 3GB like in my system) helps, 
is that each individual program is really addressing a *different* 2GB 
of their own memory.  So although each only uses up to 2Gb locally, the 
total can be up to 4GB of RAM still.

The hack is to make programs think that they have 3GB, and the system 
has 1GB - but this isn't always guaranteed to work, and a lot of 
programs won't with it.

Programs that are compiled for 64bit, or are made aware of large 
addressing systems (I don't remember the MS name for the flag in the 
EXE), aren't limited like this, and will simply use whatever memory the 
system gives them.

-- 
...Ben Chambers
www.pacificwebguy.com

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