Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!iuvax!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!ux1.cso.uiuc.edu!uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!mcdonald
From: mcdonald@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Compaq find problem with chip
Message-ID: <110200025@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 3 Nov 89 02:04:00 GMT
References: <2725@ganymede.inmos.co.uk>
Lines: 17
Nf-ID: #R:ganymede.inmos.co.uk:2725:uxe.cso.uiuc.edu:110200025:000:705
Nf-From: uxe.cso.uiuc.edu!mcdonald    Nov  2 20:04:00 1989



>  While I would not hesitatte to use one of the old 386's in a 16 bit
>environment (with the machine properly labeled of course) I would not
>use one of the flawed 486's for anything. 

But how do you know what is 16 bit? You may get a program that says
"runs on MS-DOS machines with 8088, 8086, 80286, 80386 and (we hope)
80486 processors".  On a 386 (or 486) it might use 386 instructions.

For example, do you use TeX? If so, you'll need a previewer. Mine,
DVIVGA, when run on a 386, uses 386 instructions. It doesn't
use 32 bit multiplies, but rather 32 bit shifts and block copies,
so that bug won't bite you, but other programs might get bit.
And they might not advertise the fact.

Doug McDonald