Hello,

some questions to the zones.

1) Suppose I have a machine with 512 MB RAM. How is the memory node
structured into zones? Is it in this way?

ZONE_DMA: 1-16 MB       
ZONE_NORMAL: 17-512 MB

That means, there is no high memory available for those machines with
less than 896 MB RAM ? 


2) Am I right that access to the kernel in memory is as follows:

Virtual Memory                                                  

---------
+               +  [kernel linear addresses]
+               + 
+-------+ <- 0xC0000000 [PAGE_OFFSET]
+               +
+               +
+               +
+               +  [user-space lin. addresses]
+               +
+               +
+               +
--------- <- 0x00000000


Physical Memory

---------
+               +
+               + user
+               +
+-------+
+               + kernel
--------- <- 0x00000000


So, user-space linear addresses are always below 0xC0000000 and if a
user-process addresses something beyond this it is somehow prohibited. 

But in the "real" physical memory, the order is turned around: the
kernel resides in the lower regions of the memory and the user-space in
the upper regions. Is this correct?

3) Is ZONE_NORMAL used only for the kernel or also for user processes? 

4) How much space is reserved for the kernel in the physical memory?


5) I've read something about min_low_pfn, max_low_pfn and max_pfn. So
min_low_pfn is the first page frame number after the kernel (after _end).
max_low_pfn gives me the last page frame number which is accessible by
the kernel directly or in other words: the last page frame number which
is used by the kernel for its data structures and so on, max_low_pfn+1
is the first page frame number of a user process. max_pfn is the last
page frame number available in the physical address space. 

I've read this: "In low memory machines, the max_pfn will be the same as
the max_low_pfn". In which page frames are the user-level processes then
stored? 

I must have misunderstood something... 

Thanks
Andreas


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