Re: how to tell linux (on x86) to ignore 1M or memory

From: H. Peter Anvin
Date: Thu Jun 21 2007 - 21:46:37 EST


Rene Herman wrote:
> On 04/19/2007 04:18 PM, Bart Trojanowski wrote:
>
>> I need to preserve some state from the bios before entering protected
>> mode. For now I want to copy it into some ram accessible by
>> real-mode, say the last megabyte visible in real-mode.
>>
>> What's the easiest way to have linux ignore the megabyte starting at 15M?
>
> Note that real-mode can only access the first megabyte (*) and not the
> first 16. 16MB is the 16-bit protected mode (286) limit.
>

No, 16-bit protected mode (on 386+) is not limited to 16 MB.

The main reason there is a 16 MB limit in some current systems is that
ISA, and the ISA DMA controller only had 24 address lines.

-hpa
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