Explains conventional, upper, and high memory and memory management software under DOS. Includes descriptions of HMA, extended memory (XMS), and expanded memory (EMS 3.2, EEMS, EMS 4.0).
0K-640K. The type of memory used by most DOS application programs.
640K-1MB. Used by the system to shadow system ROM and/or video ROM in RAM.
Unused portions of upper memory can be utilized to load device drivers and TSR programs using the combination of HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.SYS.
1Mb- . High memory, memory beyond 1Mb can only be accessed directly by a processor operating in protected mode. Protected mode supports multitasking by isolating programs from one another so that when one crashes, the others do not.
The first 64K of high memory is sometimes referred to as the High Memory Area, or HMA. A large part of DOS can be loaded here.
The rest of high memory can be used either as extended memory or expanded memory.
One way of using high memory is as extended memory, using an extended memory manager such as HIMEM.SYS. Extended memory under the control of HIMEM.SYS is called XMS memory. XMS memory conforms to the Lotus/Intel/Microsoft/AST eXtended Memory Specification, a standard for the way programs use extended memory.
The other way of increasing available memory beyond the 640K of conventional memory is to use expanded memory. There are two ways to obtain expanded memory:
Expanded memory uses bank switching: its like bringing a card out of a deck. How this is done depends on which standard the expanded memory adheres to:
Data can be put in this EMS memory but not program code.
Limit of 32M. Can map expanded memory to conventional memory.
Limit of 32M. Can map expanded memory to conventional memory, therefore the "card" can be placed anywhere in memory. That and its ability to control data access and sharing enhance multitasking.
For a sample CONFIG.SYS illustrating the use of HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE,
see Using HIMEM.SYS and EMM386.EXE.