NETTUR TECHNICAL TRAINING FOUNDATION

DIPLOMA IN COMPUTER ENGINEERING–CP08

PC HARDWARE

SUBJECT CODE: CP 08 04 02

PREPARED BY: Mr.Loganathan B(NEC)

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 Unit-4
Logical Memory Configuration

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Unit 4.0: LOGICAL MEMORY CONFIGURATION 2hrs

4.1 Memory mapping, Dos Memory, Conventional Memory,

The Upper Memory 1hr

4.2 Extended Memory and the High Memory Area 1hr

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4.1 Memory Mapping

 Memory mapping is a process whereby some item of digital

hardware is connected to a processor's address bus and data
bus in such a way that it can be accessed (for reading and/or
writing) exactly as if it were a memory cell.

 Memory-mapped I/O uses the same address bus to

address both Physical memory and I/O devices ‒ the memory
and registers of the I/O devices are mapped to (associated
with) address values.

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 Thus, the CPU instructions used to access the memory,
can also be used for accessing devices.

 To accommodate the I/O devices, areas of the addresses

used by the CPU must be reserved for I/O and must not be
available for normal physical memory.

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DOS/Windows Logical Memory

Prior to Windows NT and Windows 2000, operating

systems such as MS-DOS, PC-DOS, or Windows 3.x or 9.x,
organized the physical primary memory in to logical organization
that fit its processing needs.

DOS and windows operating systems define memory into

four basic divisions.

i) Conventional Memory
ii) Upper Memory Area
iii) Extended Memory
iv) High Memory

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The DOS/Windows logical memory Layout

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Conventional Memory
 Conventional memory is the first 640KB of system memory (RAM).

 The early processors could not address more than 1MB of RAM and IBM
reserved the upper 384KB of that space for its BIOS utilities,
which left the lower 640KB for the operating system and programs.

 In use, conventional memory usually contains the kernel of the operating

system, user application programs, routines that terminate--stay-resident
(TSR), and system-level device drivers.

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 The Upper Memory Area

 The upper memory Area was originally designated by IBM for use
by the system BIOS and video RAM, the 384KB that remains in the
first 1MB of RAM after conventional memory.

 As the need for more than the 640KB available grew, this area was
designated as expanded memory and special device drivers were
developed, such as EMM386.EXE, to facilitate its general use.

 The use of this area frees up space in conventional memory by

relocating device drivers and TSR programs into unused space in
the upper memory area.

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4.2 Extended Memory and the
High Memory Area

 All of a PC’s memory beyond the first 1MB of RAM is called

extended memory. Every PC has a limit of how much total memory
it can support.

 The limit is induced by a combination of the processor, motherboard,

and the operating system.

 The width of the data and address bus is usually the basis of the limit
of how much memory the PC can address.

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The memory maximum usually ranges from 16MB to 4GB, with some
newer PCs now able to accept and process even more RAM.

Regardless of the amount of RAM a PC can support, anything above

1MB is known as extended memory.

Extended memory is often confused with expanded memory.

Expanded memory (the upper memory area) expands conventional
memory to fill up the first 1MB of RAM.

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High Memory Area

 The first 64KB of extended memory is reserved for use during

startup processes of the PC. This area is called the high memory area.

 When the 640KB limit of conventional memory reaching,the ability

to access additional 64KB of memory in real mode has becom an
advantage.

 Microsoft developed a special driver called Himem.Sys that allowed

the A20 line (Address line 20) to be manipulated under software
control.

 This allows the High Memory Area to be put to good use.

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 High Memory Area Upper Memory Area
1. High Memory Area between 1024 KB to Upper Memory Area lies between
1088 KB 640KB to 1024KB
ie., High Memory = 1088 - 1024 = 64 KB ie.Upper Memory Area= 1024 - 640=
384KB
2. DOS can use this memory as part of the Used by Video RAM, Motherboard
conventional memory, ie., some part of DOS BIOS ROM, etc.,
can be stored in this location.
Eg., Device drivers and TSR programs can
use HMA.
3. The driver HIMEM.SYS must be used to No Memory manager program is not
use this area required. Microprocessor control this
area.
5. The Address line A20 can be made active Not Required.
in real mode of the microprocessor and DOS
will get additional 64KB of conventional
Memory.
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