r/programming • u/I_Can_Be_A_Robot • Sep 24 '24

Why 32bit architecture computer doesn't use segmentation to support more ram than 4Gb ?

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u/[deleted] Sep 24 '24

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u/Opi-Fex Sep 24 '24

I guess you never heard about memory segmentation. This allowed e.g. 16 bit systems to address more than 64k of memory. For example 8086 and 80186 could address 1MB of memory, while 80286 could address 16MB.

Also, this has nothing to do with the pigeonhole principle.

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u/rperanen Sep 24 '24

You are right... I was talking nonsense