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Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: How to know the size of RAM memory
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fbsd2 wrote:
> I tried what people said to do and I get different values that do not match
> what the bios say.
> Why is there so large a difference?
> How can this be explained???
>
> # /root >sysctl -a | grep -i memory
> Virtual Memory:         (Total: 2871K, Active 91444K)
> Real Memory:            (Total: 37324K Active 12756K)
> Shared Virtual Memory:  (Total: 15088K Active: 9864K)
> Shared Real Memory:     (Total: 3284K Active: 2700K)
> Free Memory Pages:      20896K
>
>
> # /root >dmesg | grep -i memory
> real memory  = 67108864 (64 MB)
> avail memory = 56094720 (53 MB)
>
> bios show
> base       640k
> extended 64512k
> cache      384k
> total = 65536k
>
>
>   
Though the answer from sysctl maybe somewhat confusing, the answer from
dmesg is exactly what you get from BIOS:
64MB = 65536 K just like your bios reports.

As for the base / extended /cache distinction in the BIOS, these belong
to the ancient "DOS" era and have nothing to do with modern operating
systems.