InfiniteMac OSx86 - View Single Post - Upgrade to 10.6 questions, application and process specific.

theta · 09-09-2009, 07:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SquidLord

Windows 32-bit is limited to something like 2.7[some specific decimal]GB of RAM, but in the "About this MAC" window, in Leopard, it does say 6GB for me and my 6GB of RAM.

My understanding is that an app that is running in 32-bit mode is limited to 4GiB of address space,

"As a 32-bit process, the kernel itself is limited to a 32-bit (i.e., 4GB) address space. That may not seem like a problem; after all, should the kernel really need more than 4GB of memory to do its job? But remember that part of the kernel's job is to track and manage system memory. The kernel uses a 64-byte structure to track the status of each 4KB page of RAM used on the system…Finally, this is worth repeating: please keep in mind that you do not need to run the 64-bit kernel in order to run 64-bit applications or install more than 4GB of RAM in your Mac. Applications run just fine in 64-bit mode on top of the 32-bit kernel, and even in earlier versions of Mac OS X it's been possible to install and take advantage of much more than 4GB of RAM."

http://arstechnica.com/apple/reviews...s-x-10-6.ars/5