NetWare requires a minimum of 64 MB of RAM and can access up to 4 GB of RAM. After the server.exe file is loaded, all remaining memory is assigned to cache memory, which is available for NLM programs and other processes to use. When data is stored in cache, it is stored in 4 KB blocks called cache buffers.
For more information about NetWare's use of cache memory, see Introduction to NetWare Memory.
NetWare provides a logical memory addressing scheme that minimizes memory fragmentation. See Logical Memory Addressing.
Troublesome or untried applications can now be loaded into protected memory to isolate them from the server kernel. Applications running in protected address spaces cannot abend the server. For information about protected memory, see Protected Address Spaces.
NetWare also provides a virtual memory system that swaps little-used data to disk, thus freeing memory for more frequently used data. Applications that run in protected address spaces use virtual memory, as does Java. For general information about the virtual memory system, see Virtual Memory.