Re: maximum possible memory limit ..

[Carl-Daniel Hailfinger <c-d.hailfinger.kernel.2003@gmx.net>]

[CC:ing lse-tech because they know better than me]

Henti Smith wrote:
> Hi all 
> 
> I had a discussion with somebody watching the whole M$ server launch and mentioned then new systems supports up to a terabyte of ram. 
> I've tried looking for a hint at what the max memory support on linux is and cannot find it anywhere.
> 
> can somebody here enlighten me on just what the maximum amount of memory linux can deal with ? 

Linux supports up to 4 GB (~2^32 bytes) of memory on 32-bit
architectures and 64 GB (~2^36 bytes) on x86 with PAE. No other
operating system can support more on 32-bit since it is a limitation of
the hardware.
On 64-bit systems, Linux supports up to 16 EB (~2^64 bytes) of memory,
which is about 16 million times more than the 1 TB limit of MS.

Current Linux 2.4 allows 32 CPUs for 32-bit arches and 64 CPUs on 64-bit
arches. However, this limit is (was?) being removed in 2.5, so you can
have up to 32767 CPUs, which should be enough for you right now.
(Note: I said _right now_, lest anybody make jokes about 640K limit)


Regards,
Carl-Daniel
-- 
http://www.hailfinger.org/