Re: [tlug] Re: [OT] Say _no_ to the Microsoft Office format as an ISO standard

[Godwin Stewart <gstewart@example.com>]

On Mon, 9 Jul 2007 13:52:39 +0900, "Josh Glover" <jmglov@example.com>
wrote:

> > Well, of course not.  It wasn't until 1985 or so that Intel
> > released a CPU (the 80386) that it made sense to port Unix to.  The
> > 80286 could be done, but the 80286 Unices (IIRC SCO had the first)
> > were hardly more than proof of concept.  I think Steve Baur had an
> > AT&T 3B2 in the early 80s, though.
> 
> The killer CPU feature was protected mode, of course.

It certainly helped, but I'm not sure that "virtual 8086" mode with its
flat memory model, and preemptive task switching too, weren't what
really made Unices possible on x86 hardware. The first Intel chip that
all these features were built into is the '386. Protected mode had been
available since the '286.

-- 
G. Stewart - gstewart@example.com

"POLICE STATION TOILET STOLEN...Cops have nothing to go on."

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