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From: zech@leadsv.UUCP (Bill Zech)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: V86 mode in 386 machines
Message-ID: <8326@leadsv.UUCP>
Date: 24 Oct 89 04:54:29 GMT
References: <8910231849.AA21907@euler.Berkeley.EDU>
Organization: LMSC-LEADS, Sunnyvale, Ca.
Lines: 25

In article <8910231849.AA21907@euler.Berkeley.EDU>, ndeng@EULER.BERKELEY.EDU writes:
> 
> There currently several packages can utilize the V86 mode of 386. 
> (MS/Windows, DESQView, etc.) However, I found none of them can give
> a user a full 640KB (or at least 600KB) in the virtual 86 mode.
> 
> Is there any environment which may give a full 640K for DOS applications?
> or this is an impossible thing? (I am not familiar with 386MAX or VMOS)
> Does anyone have any experience on it?
> 

Look into OS/386 from A.I. Architects.  They do tricks to map DOS out
of the way, even the video if you want.  Your DOS programs can use
up to 1 Meg of RAM.  There are trade-offs, however.  If you map all
that stuff out, the system has to context-switch to make them available.

OS/386 provides its own extensions for various functions that you can
call directly instead of using the DOS interrupts, and they can
improve your speed of execution.

It's an interesting package, well worth looking in to.  It will
also support protected mode programs compiled with Microsoft C and
MetaWare High C.

-Bill