Any limitations on bigmem usage?

[Matt Nelson <mnelson@dynatec.com>]

I am about to embark on a data processing software project that will require a 
LOT of memory (about, ohhh, 6GB or so), and I was wondering if there are any 
limitations to how one can use very large chunks of memory under Linux. 
Specifically, is there anything to prevent me from malloc()ing 6GB of memory, 
then accessing that memory as I would any other buffer?  FYI, the application
will be buffering a stream of data, then performing a variety of calculations on 
large blocks of data at a time, before writing it out to a socket.

I've been eyeing an 8-way Intel box with gobs of memory, but if there are subtle 
issues with using that much memory, I need to know now.

I haven't seen this specifcally addressed, so I figured I should ask you folk. 
Any insights/comments/reccomendations would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Matt

-- 
Matthew Nelson
Dynamics Technology, Inc.
21311 Hawthorne Blvd., Suite 300, Torrance, CA 90503-5610
Voice: (310) 543-5433   FAX: (310) 543-2117   Email: mnelson@dynatec.com