Editing Conventional memory (section)

{{Short description|First 640 KB of RAM under DOS}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2019|cs1-dates=y}}
{{Use list-defined references|date=December 2021}}
[[File:IBM PC Memory areas.svg|thumb|Memory areas of the IBM PC family]]

In [[DOS memory management]], '''conventional memory''', also called '''base memory''', is the first 640 [[Kilobyte#Base_2_(1024_bytes)|kilobyte]]s of the memory on [[IBM PC]] or compatible systems. It is the read-write memory directly addressable by the processor for use by the operating system and application programs. As memory prices rapidly declined, this design decision became a limitation in the use of large memory capacities until the introduction of operating systems and processors that made it irrelevant.