4 GB is the maximum addressable memory in a 32-bit system. Many such systems wit

Question

4 GB is the maximum addressable memory in a 32-bit system. Many such systems with 4 GB of RAM installed will only show 3.5 GB (or less) RAM. This discrepancy is due to which of the following? 1. The difference between calculations used by RAM manufacturers and Microsoft. 2. Some addressable space is required for the BIOS/UEFI and I/O devices.3. Microsoft rounded up in their statement of maximum addressable memory. 4. The operating system is consuming part of memory. 5. Overhead needed for the swap file

Explanation / Answer

2. Some addressable space is required for the BIOS/UEFI and I/O devices.

Every byte of RAM requires its own address, and the processor limits the length of those addresses. A 32-bit processor uses addresses that are 32 bits long. There are only 4,294,967,296, or 4GB, possible 32-bit addresses.

All these addresses are not available for RAM. There are other pieces of hardware inside the computer that need addresses, such as the PCI bus and the USB host adapter. Graphics card is probably the biggest address hog. Today's graphics adapters often contain a gigabyte or more of RAM, and every one of those bytes needs an address.

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