dennis wrote:
Charlie Tame wrote:

You seem to have a problem with your attitude Dennis. PAE mode is what
I was talking about, it is an ADDITION to a 32 bit system. As I recall
we were talking 32 bit addressing originally. In general 32 bit has a
physical and mathematical limit of 4GB. Whether MS chose to use it or
not, the fact that PAE could have been used does not change this fact.
I was not being confrontational, rather the opposite in fact, nor did
I make the original statement, however I think for practical purposes
saying that a 32bit OS can only support 4GB is true enough for most
situations, Anything over that in my opinion is an addition or
workaround.

I'm not the one with an attitude. This entire discussion is about PAE
and what is possible in PAE mode. Both XP and Vista includes a PAE
kernel, and in PAE mode, you can use more than 32 bits to define the
physical address. Microsoft just choose not to use any additional bits
to address memory, but it is a choice, not something that is
mathematical impossible.


Right, and I think this is where the misunderstanding arose, and why I
said nobody was actually "Wrong" earlier...

I am saying it is impossible if you don't use PAE mode, not that it is
impossible period. I think the OP also intended to say this, knowing
that MS had not used it. I suspect that MS decided that because 64 bit
hardware is now very much available, a serious user with a need for
large amounts of memory would prefer that than to use a mode which is
possibly less reliable due to driver issues etc.

In fact there are probably a number of "Hardware" based solutions to the
4GB limit as well, "Impossible" is probably not quite the right word
ever these days