Q37242: A General Tutorial on the Various Forms of Memory
Article: Q37242
Product(s): Microsoft Disk Operating System
Version(s): 2.11,3.1,3.2,3.21,3.3,3.3a,4.0,4.01,5.0,5.0a,6.0,6.2,6.21,6.22
Operating System(s):
Keyword(s): msdos
Last Modified: 06-JUN-2001
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The information in this article applies to:
- Microsoft MS-DOS operating system versions 2.11, 3.1, 3.2, 3.21, 3.3, 3.3a, 4.0, 4.01, 5.0, 5.0a, 6.0, 6.2, 6.21, 6.22
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SUMMARY
=======
This article provides a general description of the different forms of memory
available in the MS-DOS environment on PC and PS/2 systems. It also discusses
what kinds of software use these different areas, and what drivers are needed to
create and control some of these areas.
The first section of this article, "The Memory Map," shows a memory map that
outlines the layout of these different forms of memory. The next section, "Types
of Memory," discusses the major forms of memory, and their physical and logical
components and drivers. The "Equations" section gives some handy equations for
showing how these areas of memory can be used or emulated. After this is the
"Memory Drivers" section, which gives a brief description of the memory
management device drivers mentioned in this article. The last section, "Further
Reading," gives additional reading material for more information on some of
these forms of memory.
MORE INFORMATION
================
There are many forms of memory: conventional, extended, EMS, XMA, and XMS. Below
is a description of each form of memory, and how they relate; because there are
many relationships, you may have to read the following material twice to
eliminate any references to undefined terms.
The Memory Map
--------------
The following is an illustration that shows the various components of memory that
are available (please note that it is a very general map):
32M +--------------------------------------------+
| |
| expanded memory board | ----+
| | |
0 +--------------------------------------------+ |
|
|
+------------------------------------------- + |
| | |
| built-in memory | |
| | |
nM* +--------------------------------------------+ |
| | |
| extended memory (1M-nM*) | |
| | |
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + |
| | |
| high memory area (FFFF:0010-FFFF:FFFFh) | |
| | |
1M +--------------------------------------------+ |
| | |
| upper memory area (640K-1M) | |
| | |
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + |
| | |
| expanded memory page frame (64K) | <---+
| |
+- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - +
| |
640K +--------------------------------------------+
| |
| extended BIOS data area (1K) |
| |
639K +- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - +
| |
| conventional memory (0K-640K) |
| |
0 +--------------------------------------------+
+--------------------------------------------+
| |
| IBM expanded memory adapter (XMA) |
| |
+--------------------------------------------+
* nM = 16 MB on an 80286, 4 gigabytes on an 80386
Types of Memory
---------------
- Conventional Memory
Intel 8086 systems can address 1 MB of memory. (Later systems can address
more, in other modes.) On PC and PS/2 systems, this is divided into the
conventional memory area and the upper memory area (UMA).
The conventional memory area is the 0K-640K section of "normal" memory. This
area of memory is used by MS-DOS and normal application software.
The UMA is the 640K-1 MB section of memory that normally contains video
adapter buffers, network card buffers, and other buffers and work areas for
peripherals and the ROM BIOS. It is also normally used on EMS systems to
store the expanded memory page frame. This area of memory is normally used by
the ROM BIOS and peripherals, such as the expanded memory manager.
- Extended Memory
The extended memory area is an area of memory that is available only on 80286
and 80386 systems. This memory begins at 1 MB. On 80286 systems, the upper
limit is 16 MB; on 80386 systems, the upper limit is 4 gigabytes. This memory
is only addressable while in protected mode. It is normally used by systems
software (RAMDrive, SMARTDrive, VDISK, EMM386.SYS, XMAEM.SYS, and
HIMEM.SYS).
Built-in memory (BIM) is a form of memory that exists on Compaq and some other
80386 OEM systems. These systems have 1 MB of conventional memory on their
motherboard, and this extra 384K of "built-in memory" is mapped to the top of
extended memory, because the UMA already occupies the upper 384K of
conventional memory. This area of memory is normally used by systems
software. HIMEM.SYS uses this memory and includes it in its extended memory
blocks, if it is available. (Other OEM systems also have 384K of otherwise
unused memory on their motherboard. A common place for this memory to be
mapped into is the first section of extended memory.)
- EMS Memory
An expanded memory board is a separate board that contains EMS memory of up to
32 MB, which can be addressed on any Intel 80x86 system by paging 16K
portions of memory into the expanded memory page frame, located in the UMA.
The expanded memory page frame, normally located in the UMA, is a collection
of 16K physical pages from which an application program accesses expanded
memory. These page frames are memory frames paged in from the expanded memory
board. This area of memory is controlled exclusively by the expanded memory
manager (such as EMM386.SYS), which is in turn called by systems software
(such as Buffers/X, Fastopen/X, SMARTDrive, RAMDrive, VDISK, MSCDEX, and
Windows) and applications software (such as Excel and the Programmer's
Library).
Alternatively, 80386 systems can use 80386-specific features to emulate EMS
memory by paging 16K portions of memory into the expanded memory page frame,
as always located in the UMA. EMM386, QEMM, and 386MAX are examples of this
software.
- XMA Memory
An IBM expanded memory adapter (XMA) is a separate board that contains IBM (or
compatible) XMA memory, which can be addressed as either expanded memory or
extended memory, with the appropriate software drivers.
- XMS Memory
XMS memory is the collection of the UMA and the extended memory area, and is
controlled by an extended memory manager (XMM) such as HIMEM.SYS. The
extended memory area is only available on 80286 and 80386 systems. The
extended memory area is broken up into two logical areas by the XMM: the high
memory area (HMA) and extended memory blocks. Thus, XMS memory consists of
the UMA, the HMA, and the extended memory area.
The HMA is 64K of memory located at the beginning of the extended memory area.
It exists only on 80286 and 80386 systems with extended memory. This area
only exists in a controlled, easily accessible manner when HIMEM.SYS or
another XMS driver is installed. This area of memory is controlled
exclusively by the extended memory manager (such as HIMEM.SYS), which is in
turn called by systems software (such as Windows) and applications software.
Upper memory blocks (UMBs) are blocks of memory that are available on some
80286 and 80386 systems, and are located in the UMA. The number, size, and
location of these blocks vary widely, depending upon the types of hardware
adapter cards installed in the machine. The XMS specification creates these
abstract data types. (HIMEM.SYS does not implement UMBs; in MS-DOS 5.0 and
later, EMM386.EXE does.)
Extended memory blocks (EMBs) are blocks of extended memory. The XMS
specification creates these abstract data types. This area can only be used
for data storage (that is, they cannot be used to store code). EMBs exist to
allow systems and applications software to allocate extended memory, which is
otherwise very difficult to address and manipulate in a controlled manner.
Equations
---------
The following are some rules and "equations" for combining, modifying, and
emulating memory to make it useful:
<XMS memory> = <extended memory> + HIMEM.SYS
<XMS memory including UMBS> = <80386 system> + <extended memory> +
HIMEM.SYS + EMM386.EXE (version 4.33.06x or later)
<XMA memory> = proprietary memory adapter of IBM
<EMS memory> = usable by MS-DOS and applications
<extended memory> = usable by some applications
<XMA memory> = <80386 system> + <extended memory> + XMAEM.SYS
<EMS memory> = <80386 system> + <extended memory> +
EMM386.SYS (version 4.0)
<EMS memory> = <80386 system> + <extended memory> + HIMEM.SYS +
EMM386.SYS or EMM386.EXE (version 4.10.0419 or later)
This means the two-stage system needed by IBM PC-DOS owners to convert their
80386 extended memory into EMS memory is as follows:
<EMS memory> = <80386 system> + <extended memory> + XMAEM.SYS +
XMA2EMS.SYS
The one state processed is needed by Microsoft MS-DOS users to convert their
80386 systems to EMS memory is as follows:
<EMS memory> = <80386 system> + <extended memory> +
EMM386.SYS (version 4.0)
<EMS memory> = <80386 system> + <extended memory> + HIMEM.SYS +
EMM386.SYS (version 4.10.0419)
<EMS memory> = <80386 system> + <extended memory> + HIMEM.SYS +
EMM386.EXE (version 4.20.06x)
If you have an 80386 system, extended memory, and MS-DOS, you can use EMM386.SYS
to obtain EMS memory. If you have the same system and memory with IBM PC-DOS,
you must use two drivers, XMAEM.SYS and XMA2EMS.SYS, to achieve EMS memory.
If you have an 80286 system and want to use your extended memory as EMS memory,
you will not be able to use the existing drivers included with MS-DOS. Some of
these extended memory boards come with EMS emulators, which can be used.
Memory Drivers
--------------
The Microsoft driver HIMEM.SYS takes over 80286 and 80386 extended memory,
converting it to the extended memory area of the XMS specification. It also
takes the first 64K of this extended memory area and converts it into the HMA.
The IBM PC-DOS version 4.0 driver XMAEM.SYS takes IBM PS/2 Model 80 80386
extended memory and uses it to emulate IBM XMA memory. (Used in conjunction with
the XMA2EMS.SYS driver, it is possible to use this memory as EMS memory.)
The IBM PC-DOS version 4.0 driver XMA2EMS.SYS takes IBM XMA memory (or the
emulated XMA memory created by the XMAEM.SYS driver) and uses it to emulate
LIM/EMS memory.
The Microsoft MS-DOS version 4.0 driver EMM386.SYS takes 80386 extended memory
and uses it to emulate LIM/EMS memory.
REFERENCES
==========
For more information on LIM/EMS memory, refer to the official specification, the
"Lotus/Intel/Microsoft Expanded Memory Specification Version 4.0," available
free from Intel by calling (800) 538-3373.
For more information on XMS memory, refer to the official specification, the
"eXtended Memory Specification Version 3.0," available free from Microsoft. To
obtain the specification, see the "Instructions for Downloading" section below.
For more information on the extended BIOS data area of IBM PS/2 and compatible
OEM systems, refer to the "IBM PS/2 and PC BIOS Interface Technical Reference,"
part number 68X2260, available from IBM by calling (800) IBM-PCTB. (Another
reference that contains similar material is the Microsoft Press book
"Programmer's Quick Reference Series: IBM ROM BIOS," by Ray Duncan, ISBN
1-55615-135-7.)
For more information on Compaq built-in memory (BIM), refer to the "Compaq
DeskPro 386(TM) Personal Computer Technical Reference Guide," available from
Compaq.
Additional query words: 6.22 5.00 5.00a 6.00 6.20
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Keywords : msdos
Technology : kbMSDOSSearch kbMSDOS321 kbMSDOS400 kbMSDOS320 kbMSDOS330a kbMSDOS621 kbMSDOS622 kbMSDOS620 kbMSDOS600 kbMSDOS310 kbMSDOS500 kbMSDOS330 kbMSDOS401 kbMSDOS500a kbMSDOS211
Version : :2.11,3.1,3.2,3.21,3.3,3.3a,4.0,4.01,5.0,5.0a,6.0,6.2,6.21,6.22
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