ONE SILLY QUESTION

[tanmoy_rajguru2005]

Maximum how much of RAM can be accepted by a cpu (32 bit). And is there any limit of hard disk size that a processor can handle?

 

[con_tester]

I think 1 GB Ram.
And unlimited HD space.
But I may be wrong.
Wait for others to reply.

 

[ishaan]

i think 2gb ram can be supported....which is actually 2 one gb rams...

and even i think HDD is unlimited...not sure

in a 64 bit...4gb ram can b supported

 

[sakumar79]

I believe the RAM limit and the HD limit is imposed by the motherboard and not by the CPU. And the value will vary for newer and older motherboards.
RAM limit is based the number of RAM slots available and max. single RAM possible. I dont know if 1 GB module is max although many motherboards I have seen dont support larger RAM modules... Best way to find out capacity of your system is by looking at the manual...
HDD limit depends on access type (ATA/133, SATA, etc) and also earlier (and even present I think) BIOS can limit accessible size.

Arun

 

[puja399]

'How much RAM can be accepted by a 32-bit processor' is a tricky question. Actually the RAM size is determined by the Address Bus size of the processor. Modern 32 bit processors like P4 and Athlon have 36 bit address bus, meaning thereby, they can support memory upto 64GB. However, older 32 bit CPUs like Pentium-MMX etc., had only 32 bit address bus, and can support memory upto 4GB. Itanium, however has 44 bit address bus, and can support upto 16TB.

This is however, is the maximum memory that can be addressed by the processor, and includes virtual memory. The physical ram that is installable in memory modules is restricted by the motherboard and not by the processor. You can find the largest RAM size supported by your motherboard if you read ur manual, which is not above 4GB, I suppose (or, even 2 GB).

And maximum HDD size is also a difficult concept, covering capacity limitation, bios limitation and also OS limitation. And limitations also differ in case of ATA and SCSI. If u have ATA-6 compliant controller, u can have a maximum of 144 Petabytes (2^48 sectors), and in case of modern SCSI controllers, the maxmum size becomes 9.44 ZetaBytes (2^64 sectors).

This is what I know, and please correct me if I am worng.

 

[geekysage]

tang! that's absolutely correct, puja.

gotta admit, you've got some brain for a girl.

 

[vijay_7287]

bingo .......... !!!! PUJA grt work (chicks i know dont know wat OS they work on)

thts absolutely right ...

a simpler way of lookin at it is, the max RAM size is the max number of calculation the CPU can take at one time
ie 2 bytes per cycle in a 32 bit register

tht come out to be 2^32 which is 4 gb
2^36 is 64 gb

not really sure abt the hard disk , but i with wat PUJA said !!!

and by the way ths no silly question !!!!!

 

[ramprasad]

Great explanation puja399 and vijay_7287.........

reg the max HDD capacity...

I have heard one of my coleague's saying that his system doesnt recognise beyond 200GB, without having extended support...

I suppose this is the limitation of OS...........

Correct me if I am wrong....

 

[puja399]

...

gotta admit, you've got some brain for a girl.

Although I don't prefer sexist comment, but I take that as a compliment!! 8) 8) 8)

 

[tanmoy_rajguru2005]

Thank you puja