Very recently, PC users are running into problems when they install 4GB or more memory in their systems. If they did not use a 64-bit version of Windows XP or Vista, only about 3GB of the installed RAM would be recognised (the other ~1GB is reserved). This is due to 32-bit OSes being unable to access more than 4GB of RAM.
Back in the 1980s (not sure which year), many PC users would have encoundtered a similar headache with the 640KB memory barrier.
In which year did the 640KB barrier become a significant problem for most PC users? What was it like? Were there concerns of backward compatibilty with 16-bit applications when software/OSes for the 80386 (or 80286) was written? (just like 64-bit OSes having backward compatibility issues today)
I would appreciate it if long-time PC users can mention their experiences with the 640KB barrier.
Back in the 1980s (not sure which year), many PC users would have encoundtered a similar headache with the 640KB memory barrier.
In which year did the 640KB barrier become a significant problem for most PC users? What was it like? Were there concerns of backward compatibilty with 16-bit applications when software/OSes for the 80386 (or 80286) was written? (just like 64-bit OSes having backward compatibility issues today)
I would appreciate it if long-time PC users can mention their experiences with the 640KB barrier.