[Gllug] 4G Memory Restriction

[Steve Nelson]

Hi all,

I wanted to check my understanding on a matter before I write some
documentation on Linux memory management.

I've currently stated:

"""4GB is the maximum any OS can address in 32-bits.

However, Linux (and other OS) have strategies to cope with >4GB memory.

Current Linux 2.4 & 2.6 series, RedHat compiled, kernels on IA-32
hardware support >4GB memory by default.

Current Linux 2.4 & 2.6 series, RedHat compiled, "huge memory" kernels
(kernel-hugemem) on IA-32 support >16GB memory.

Earlier versions of RedHat's OS had the option of "big memory" kernels
( 4GB< kernel-bigmem <16GB) this is no longer the case as the required
patches are included in the default kernels (both uni &
multi-processor flavours)."""

Any inaccuracies here, or is this pretty spot on?  Anything I've missed out?

Thanks all,

S.
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