Skip to main content  Operating Systems and PAE Support
Updated: July 14, 2006  On This Page  PAE: 32- vs. 64-Bit
Systems  PAE: 32- vs. 64-Bit Systems Technical Background 
Technical Background Operating System Implementation and
Application Support  Operating System Implementation and
Application Support Technical Issues with Large Memory Support
in IA32  Technical Issues with Large Memory Support in IA32
Windows and PAE  Windows and PAE  PAE: 32- vs. 64-Bit Systems
This article describes some techniques that Microsoft Windows
operating systems and several UNIX operating systems use to
provide support to applications using PAE mode addressing.
Because processes running in these environments have 32-bit
pointers, the operating system must manage and present PAE's 36
bits of address in such a way that the applications can
practically use it. The key question is: how does the operating
system solve this problem? The performance, functionality,
simplicity of programming, and reliability of how these issues
ar