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nuclear war (Miscellaneous)

posted by kerravon, Ligao, Free World North, 12.11.2022, 08:48

> > My 16-bit OS only really becomes practical with
> > about 2 MB of memory, so I need a 16:16 machine
> > with a 5-bit segment shift, or something similar
> > to the 80286 will also work, and that is my
> > interest and priority.
>
> There were 186 clones with 24-bit addressing. The 186 was still being made
> at least until 2007. (I believe OpenWatcom contributor Wilton Helm had much
> experience with embedded 186.)
>
> https://www.cpushack.com/2013/01/12/the-intel-80186-gets-turbocharged-vautomation-turbo186/
FANTASTIC!!! Real hardware that does exactly what I want.

I will work this into my repertoire. I wasn't able
to find the actual instruction data sheet for it
though, but I may have enough anyway. And it's
the concept that's important anyway.


https://openwatcom.users.c-cpp.narkive.com/wBo3RarK/186-24-bit-addressing

The only processor I know of that uses 186 24 bit addressing is the Dstni
series, so I'm guessing that is what you are using. Yes, there is support
for it. I implemented it a few years ago. It was broken in 1.8, but I have
been told it has been fixed, although I haven't had a chance to test it (I
use an older version of the linker and have been overloaded with production
code).

OP HSHIFT=8 sets it up. Note that you can also set the __HShift assembly
variable to 8 which will make the huge memory model RTL code generate proper
addressing.


> There was also the Bandai Wonderswan (NEC V30) circa 1999:
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WonderSwan
As far as I can tell, the NEC V30 only does 20-bit
addressing, so I don't know the relevance.

> > Is there any reason why OS/2 2.0 didn't use that same API?
> > And 64-bit Windows? Or rather - could it?
>
> Microsoft wanted to "control the standard", so to speak, but IBM fired
> them. They don't want to license *nix from AT&T for Xenix, for instance.
> They want to do their own thing.
>
> http://gunkies.org/wiki/Gordon_Letwin_OS/2_usenet_post (circa 1995)
>
> > Or it could be done the other way around - take the
> > Windows API and implement it for MSDOS, since
> > Windows doesn't use fork().
>
> There are lots of software patents and lawyers. While many agree that APIs
> can't be copyrighted, it's still a minefield. Just because they "got away"
> with it in the old days (e.g. PC-DOS vs. CP/M, Compaq vs. IBM BIOS) doesn't
> mean they wouldn't still clamp down in a heartbeat if they could.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_LLC_v._Oracle_America,_Inc.
>
> (I don't really want to mention that, but for completeness, it's worth
> noting ... barely.)
Well, if that's the issue, then maybe that's what
I can offer - my API is explicitly public domain.

If that's the only public domain API to choose
from, then are you happy with it (for small
systems) or do you want some changes?

Thanks. Paul.

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