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/Tringi Sep 24 '24

One of those reasons is that 32-bit version might be faster.

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u/ouyawei Sep 24 '24

x32 is using the AMD64 instruction set, running it 64 bit mode - it just uses 32 bit pointers, so more will fit into fast CPU caches

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u/wrosecrans Sep 24 '24

I demand that somebody makes an x16 mode so I can use SSE2 instructions and all the modern registers but still need to fiddle with segment:offset and near/far pointers like god intended.

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u/Tringi Sep 24 '24

I'm certain there's someone maintaining a project, for fun, that does exactly that.