Introduction to 48-bit Addressing

I thought the Intel (AMD, Cyrix, etc) chipset was a 32-bit processor?

It is in the sense that the register width is 32-bits, the integer math is limited to 32-bits (64-bit result), and it has a 32-bit instruction set. 48-bit addressing refers to how the PC handles memory. The Intel processor has three modes which control, among other things, how memory is addressed. They are:

Protected Mode
This is the native state of the processor. Intel recommends that this is the mode that all new applications and operating systems should target.
Real mode
This mode provides the programming environment of the 8086, with a few extensions, such as being able to control aspects of the processor state.
System Management Mode
SMM is a standard architectural feature that has been implemented beginning with the Intel386 SL processor. This mode is entered through activation of an external interrupt pin (SMI#), which switches the CPU to a separate address space while saving the entire context of the CPU. SMM-specific code may then be executed transparently to the OS and any application currently running. This mode is how green PCs and laptops are able to enter a sleep state.

Memory Organization

The memory on the bus of the PC is called physical memory. Each byte is assigned a unique address, called a physical address, which ranges from zero to a maximum of 2³²-1 bytes. With segmentation, however, it is possible to have multiple, independent address spaces. Segments can be assigned specifically for holding a program's code, data, or stack. The PC is limited to 16,383 segments of up to 4 gigabytes each, or a total as large as 2⁴⁶ bytes (64 Terabytes). Each segment has a segment descriptor, which holds its base address and size limit. Borland Pascal limits each segment to 64K. Borland wanted to keep compatibility with the 286, which lacks 32-bit addressing. Therefore, the indexing done by the compiler uses 16-bit operands instead of 32-bit ones (ie, using DI instead of EDI, or SI instead of ESI). This doesn't mean that one cannot do 32-bit indexing in Borland Pascal. It does mean, however, that you must use assembler to do so.

32-bit Addressing

32-bit addressing is commonly referred to as the "flat" memory model. This is a misnomer, since there isn't a mode bit or control register which turns off the segmentation mechanism. Instead, all of the segment registers are mapped to the same address space (usually the base of memory), and only the 32-bit offset is used. This mode has the benefit of not needing to load segment registers.

48-bit Addressing

48-bit addressing uses the 16-bit segment selector, and a 32-bit offset to access memory. Because Borland Pascal allows you to allocate a selector, all that is required to do 48-bit addressing is to set the limit to however big the memory is. How to do this is covered later in the tutorial.