Re: x11 on powermac g5 / 8 gb ram (Wolf Schweitzer)
Re: x11 on powermac g5 / 8 gb ram (Wolf Schweitzer)
- Subject: Re: x11 on powermac g5 / 8 gb ram (Wolf Schweitzer)
- From: "M. Stanley Bubien" <email@hidden>
- Date: Fri, 7 Nov 2003 11:47:24 -0800
>> Does anyone know how to get X11 ( OS X Panther) to recognise 8 GB of
>> RAM
>> memory? It only recognises 2 GB so far, so we've actually got 6 GB of
>> junk
>> sitting around here right now.
>
>No, you don't. Even if every process is only limited to 2 or 4 GB,
>other processes (and the kernel, e.g. for caching) can still use the
>other memory. Additionally, programs using the X11 window server do not
>get their memory from the X11 subsystem, they get it straight from the
>OS (like all other programs). So even if the X11 window server is a
>32bit program, this has nothing to do with whether or not the programs
>using the window server can allocate more than 2 or 4GB memory.
>
>Now, for those programs to be able to address more than 4GB of memory,
>they would at least have to be recompiled as 64bit programs. However, I
>don't know whether there are already API's that allow a program to run
>in a 64bit address space (and associated gcc flags to tell it to use
>64bit pointers, not just 64bit arithmetics).
>
>Finally, keep in mind that as long as you are running in a 32bit
>address space, that there is a difference between not being able to
>allocate more than 2GB and not being able to allocate more than 2GB in
>one contiguous block. It's quite possible that you cannot allocate
>2.5GB block, but that you can allocate a 2GB and a 500MB block. The
>reason is that part of the memory space has to be used to map shared
>libraries etc., which may get in the way.
>
>Jonas
>
Wolf, you showoff!!! :-)
Good info Jonas. I haven't been thinking about 64 bit addressing, but
obviously that's going to become necessary in the very near future.
Is Panther 64bit clean? I thought I heard it was, but then Apple changed
it. But maybe that was 10.2.8? A bit off topic at this point, but
definitely interesting.
Speaking of off-topic...
During my grad school days in the early '90s, our Prof announced the
addition of 256 Megs of RAM for one of our Suns. I promptly raised my
hand and asked exactly what the HELL we needed 256 megs for!!! (Some
statistical project for the San Diego Super Computer Center.) The
256 Megs were 2x the typical HD in the lab, and it cost somewhere
between $30,000 and $50,000!! Those were the days.
-Mark
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