Charlie Tame wrote:
Dennis, Colin's original statement was right, it is mathematically
impossible to address more using 32 bits. It is possible using 32 bits
AND something else to physically achieve what "Looks like" addressing
more but this is by ADDING something - the limit is real if nothing
extra is added.

Note Colin's mention somewhere here of a "Performance Hit", that is why.


PAE mode adds another layer to the page table, and extends it from 32 to
64 bits. This allows for more than 32 bit to be used for addressing
memory. So it is very mathematically possible to address more than 4GB.

The "performance hit" is very small. Most people are already running in
PAE mode, due to DEP support.