On the mobile 4GB memory barrier
Why does Intel not come out with mobile chipsets that can break out of the 4 GB memory barrier? I can see how this is not a commodity item, given that 64bit Windows is still not for the faint of heart, but surely there are enough leading edge types in the 64bit Windows, Linux and Mac OS X community that would make more than 32bit physical address support for the mobile platforms sensible?
With 1-2GB minimum RAM recommendations now for nearly all applications, there is really little headroom left with the common 3-4GB limit on the current crop of mobile chipsets. And RAM, or rather the lack of it, is still the number one reason for sluggish performance for most people. With Mac OS X on an old PowerBook G4 maxxed out with 2GB RAM (which it has had for 3 years time), I often seem to have 9GB or more of swap in use, with Mail, Safari, NNW, Pathfinder, Skype, a couple of utility apps, Word and Eclipse, OxygenXML and maybe an Emacs and Lisp thrown in for good measure.
So, pretty please with sugar on top, give me a mobile chipset with support for more than 4GB of physical memory, and a matching Apple MacBook Pro or whatever this year, please?
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It seems that, at long last, the 4GB mobile memory barrier is being broken. It turns out that certain Intel mobile chipsets do, actually, inofficially, support 2GBit chips and hence the 4GB memory modules needed for e.g. 8GB of RAM.... Read More