http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_Address_Extension
editWikipedia wrote:The Linux kernel includes full PAE mode support starting with version 2.3.23,[17] enabling access of up to 64 GB of memory on 32-bit machines. A PAE-enabled Linux kernel requires that the CPU also support PAE. The Linux kernel supports PAE as a build option and major distributions provide a PAE kernel either as the default or as an option. As of 2009,[18] some common Linux distributions have started to use a PAE-enabled kernel as the distribution-specific default.[18] As of 2012, common Linux distributions have stopped distributing non-PAE kernels, thus making PAE hardware mandatory - examples being Red Hat Enterprise Linux / CentOS from version 6.0, Ubuntu (and derivatives like Linux Mint) from 12.10.[19] Fedora and Debian still distribute both PAE and non-PAE kernels.
How to check if your cpu supports PAE? It can be done in a glorious way via this command:
Code: Select all
grep --color=always -i PAE /proc/cpuinfo