Here is an attempt to summarize how the PGA_AGGREGATE_TARGET defines the upper limits that Oracle should use for the PGA areas of the processes used to run the database. The value of PGA_AGGREGATE_TARGET determines several internal parameters, among them are _pga_max_size, _smm_max_size and _smm_px_max_size . These internal parameters control the maximum amount of memory that can by used a single process (_pga_max_size ), a serial operation resp. "workarea" (_smm_max_size) and the maximum memory available for the operation of a parallel slave in a parallel operation (_smm_px_max_size). In 10.2 the upper limits are driven by the _smm_max_size which is derived from PGA_AGGREGATE_TARGET and can be larger than 100M if you have a PGA_AGGREGATE_TARGET greater than 1GB (I think _smm_max_size = 10% of PGA_AGGREGATE_TARGET if this is > 1GB). The _pga_max_size is then two times _smm_max_size. column name format a40 column value format 999,999,999 select name, value fro...