Some RAM is reserved for the operating system, about 192MB. In actual byte count, 512MB is 488MB (more on this below), leaving ~296MB of user accessible RAM. It's completely normal.
Actual bit counts: Manufacturers count bytes in 1000s, while computers count them in 1024's. In the manufacturer's eyes 512,000,000 bytes is 512MB, but to a computer, 512MB is 536,870,912 bytes. A computer will count 512,000,000 bytes as ~488MB.
Edit: Just want to add, the byte count issue is more of a thing for hard drives. RAM isn't necessarily affected by this issue, though it can vary from manufacturer. The Nexus S could very well have true 512MB of RAM, and the system may reserve 224MB.
It could if the people who programmed that aspect of Android wanted it to, but I assume they thought it would be more useful to display it in terms of user available RAM while also protecting system memory from accidental corruption.
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