Question about the E6400

Impossible for a single process to access more than 3andabitGB (after shared kernel and hardware space is excluded) but the hardware can access more then 32bits worth of memory using PAE, various 32bit editions of Win2000, Win2003, Win2008 more than 4GB - but I'd say Microsoft is *so* unlikely to allow Vista32 to use it.

 

PAE is used only on PCs that use exclusively PAE aware hardware with PAE aware programs and PAE aware drivers.

In other words, PAE is worthless.

It is much simpler to just say it is impossible.

 

I've heard the reason why Vista won't address more than 4GB is because of a software limitation, not hardware. In short, device drivers have to know and use PAE, which would require all drivers to be rewritten. Think about how hard of a time most manufacturers have had this far in writing Vista drivers...do you really want to kick them while they're down? As an alternative, the push towards 64-bit will soon make 32bit drivers the "hard to find" ones. With the significant improvements in their 64bit OS (Vista) when compared to XP64 (which was a hack), their intentions seem obvious.

Finally, Microsoft requires all certified drivers to have a 32 and 64 bit versions before they consider signing them. Also, 64bit Vista will only load signed drivers (although I think there's a hack?). Although most people hate this because of outdated hardware drivers, I believe Microsoft is really trying to move towards a more secure OS, with signed drivers as one of the methods. I'm really curious where Win7 is headed...