Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucsd!ogccse!blake!oregon!michelbi
From: michelbi@oregon.uoregon.edu (Michel Biedermann)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: 640KB + 3072KB = 4 MB?
Message-ID: <7944@oregon.uoregon.edu>
Date: 17 Sep 89 16:49:18 GMT
References: <8909170749.AA26779@euler.Berkeley.EDU>
Organization: University of Oregon
Lines: 17

In article <8909170749.AA26779@euler.Berkeley.EDU>, ndeng@EULER.BERKELEY.EDU (Nan Deng) writes:
> Recently I have seen a number of 386 motherboards all using PHEONIX BIOS.
> (MICRONICS, GENE, etc.) All boards have 4MB memory chips installed. All
> boards reported 640KB of base memory and 3072KB extended memory when boot up.
> 
> My question is: where is the additional 384KB?

The mistery of the disappearing 384K is one of DOS's problems.  Extended memory
only starts at 1Mb.  The 384K between base memory (640K) and extended memory
(> 1Mb) is used by DOS as video system memory.  Certain computer manufacturers allow
part or all of this memory to be used as EMS (expanded memory), for BIOS
shadowing, or for printspooler or RAM disk.

I hope this helps!
 
Michel Biedermann	michelbi@oregon.uoregon.edu
U. of Oregon