Re: Why Windows sucks
In article <ftndvv$7bm$1@registered.motzarella.org>,
White Spirit <wspirit@homechoice.co.uk> wrote:
> * Perhaps claiming twenty-five years is unfair given that x86
> architecture was originally unable to offer multitasking, which was only
> truly available with 32-bit x86. The i368 was first released in 1985,
You are very confused here. The 286 offered multitasking. This was
utilized at the consumer level in OS/2, and at the pro level in Unix and
Xenix.
The only difficulty in doing Unix on the 286 was that the memory
management model was segment based, not page based. So, for example,
when ISC was doing the port for AT&T from 3B2 to 286, the thing that was
the most work for us was writing a new VM system that was a cross
between a paging system and a swapping system. For the port from 3B2 to
386, we could just bring the 3B2 paging system over, and it mapped
pretty closely to what the 386 offered.
--
--Tim Smith