Sorry but 32 bits can only address 4Gb - you can fudge it by adding offsets (mirrors) but it is a fudge. PAE is a fudge. You aren't physically addressing more than 4Gb at any one time it is like having a book - you can view any double page but you can't see 4 page at once - unless you use mirrors!

-Carol Haynes (November 09, 2009, 07:18 PM)

I agree 32 bits can only address 4Gb at any one time. But this has nothing to do with how many portions that made up the 4Gb and where each portion is laid. I could have N portions that add up to 4Gb but they all are just part of a 400Gb physical memory.

i.e. the fact that "32 bits can only address 4Gb at any one time" should not restrict a 32 bits O/S from handling more than 4Gb physical memory.

It is like if I can only eat one chicken at any one meal, that does not mean I must cook only one chicken for every meal. I could for example cook 3 chickens and eat 1/3 of each of them... :D

Not really accurate - a 32-bit CPU and OS can only address 4Gb at any one time. You can use an offset to point to that 4Gb if you want to but, for example, when you are looking at the 4Gb starting at 64Gb you can't see the 4Gb at 16Gb.

-Carol Haynes (November 06, 2009, 08:04 PM)

Hi Carol Haynes, your example is not right.

No matter how hard I try with my eyes, I can only see about 120 dgree of the world in front of me, but if I turn around I can see the whole world... well, even if I don't turn around, with a mirror, I can see what is in front and at the back of me at the sametime  :P