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From: brown@vidiot.UUCP (Vidiot)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: V86 mode in 386 machines
Message-ID: <166@vidiot.UUCP>
Date: 1 Nov 89 15:31:18 GMT
References: <8910231849.AA21907@euler.Berkeley.EDU> <8326@leadsv.UUCP> <[2717.2]comp.ibmpc;1@point.UUCP>
Reply-To: brown@vidiot.UUCP (Vidiot)
Distribution: na
Organization: Vidiot's Hangout
Lines: 31

In article <[2717.2]comp.ibmpc;1@point.UUCP> wek@point.UUCP (Bill Kuykendall) 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.
<
<I doubt you're getting more than 600k now.  'DOS loads into the 640k space
<leaving about 591,000 bytes free on most of my systems running Compaq DOS
<3.31.  With Desqview & QEMM, the worst case (with EGA or VGA) winds up
<costing about 10k extra (assuming that you have extended memory that
<Desqview can use).  The best case (with Hercules or CGA) can net you an
<*increase* in available program space (over 700k!).  This is possible
<because QEMM will append unused video RAM area to the 640k, yielding as much
<as 736k for 'DOS.  Desqview will use high memory (between top-of-video and
<bios addresses) and LIM 4.0 (created by QEMM from extended memory above 1MB)
<to store all but 10k of it's code.

I think the original poster is asking if a software company will give the
full 640K that DOS thinks it has in non-V86 mode.  Obviously you lose part of
that 640K when DOS is loaded.  But, DesqView does eat up part of each of the
virtual partitions.

I suggest getting a copy of IGC VM/386.  Each virtual parition is exactly like
a bunch of mini PCs.  Each partition can run a different version of DOS.  Before
I put Unix on this PC of mine, I used VM/386 all the time.  If a partition is
inactive, you can put it to sleep, therby providing those time slices to the
other active paritions.  Excellent software.
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