

By default such drivers are placed in conventional memory. This is called Terminate and Stay Resident (TSR). The available free memory can be lower as some drivers have to leave a part of their code in memory to handle e.g. Programs are loaded to this memory range. If you really want to understand how this all works, see the Wikipedia article on DOS memory management, or use your web search engine of choice.Ĭonventional memory or base memory is the memory range between 0 kb and 640 kb. This page will try to explain, in simple language, all the technical terms you will encounter in DOS memory management, and provide you with practical information to get your favorite games and programs running. Optimizing your system to attain enough free memory for your programs is called memory management. It is also helpful to know the most common memory management drivers. To use the available RAM effectively in DOS you have to know how the x86 architecture splits up RAM, what these different regions are for. In DOS memory is split into different regions and there are several standards as EMS and XMS for accessing memory. In DOS hardware and memory access is closely related to the standards defined by the x86 architecture.

The OS determines how to use it, and you usually don't need to worry about it at all. With modern operating systems, all memory management you need to do is installing enough RAM.
