Re: physical memory limit of 64-bit linux

From: Martin Steigerwald
Date: Wed Dec 17 2008 - 09:12:41 EST



Thanks to all for the answers and the detailed discussions.

Am Dienstag, 16. Dezember 2008 schrieb Andi Kleen:
> On Tue, Dec 16, 2008 at 04:54:16PM +0100, Rafael J. Wysocki wrote:
> > On Tuesday, 16 of December 2008, Martin Steigerwald wrote:
> > > Hi!
> > >
> > > What is the physical memory limit for 64-bit Linux? I read about 40 bit
> > > address bus for AMD Athlon X2 (1 TB) and 48 bit for Barcelona X4 (256
> > > TB).
> > >
> > > Is 64-bit linux able to use that amount - provided that one would
> > > manage to build it into a machine? Or does it have a lower limit?
>
> It depends on which 64bit Linux; e.g. IA64 has larger limits.

Is it 50 bits (1024 TB)?

ms@mango:~/lokal/Kernel/linux-2.6.27/arch/ia64>
egrep -r "(define.*MAX_PHYS_MEMORY|define.*MAX_PHYS_BITS|
define.*IA64_MAX_PHYSBITS)" *
include/asm/pgtable.h:#define IA64_MAX_PHYS_BITS 50 /* max. number
of physical address bits (architected) */
include/asm/pgtable.h:#define _PAGE_PPN_MASK (((__IA64_UL(1) <<
IA64_MAX_PHYS_BITS) - 1) & ~0xfffUL)
sn/kernel/setup.c:#define MAX_PHYS_MEMORY (1UL <<
IA64_MAX_PHYS_BITS) /* Max physical address supported */

Ciao,
--
Martin Steigerwald - team(ix) GmbH - http://www.teamix.de
gpg: 19E3 8D42 896F D004 08AC A0CA 1E10 C593 0399 AE90

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