Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!shadooby!mailrus!ncar!ico!vail!rcd
From: rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: UNIX runs DOS applications?
Summary: clarification of "VP/ix"
Message-ID: <1989Nov17.202018.10930@ico.isc.com>
Date: 17 Nov 89 20:20:18 GMT
References: <719@crash.cts.com>
Organization: Interactive Systems Corporation
Lines: 31

jca@pnet01.cts.com (John C. Archambeau) writes:
> mitsolid@acf5.NYU.EDU (Thanasis Mitsolides) writes:
> >Is it possible to run DOS sessions from inside UNIX?
...
> Yes, SunOS 4.0.x on a Sun 386i (or a Sun with a Sun IPC board) will do the job
> nicely.  Too pricy for you?  Ok, get SCO ...
[various items about VP/ix]

You could also try Interactive's 386/ix.  Note - there are various places
where VP/ix shows up in other products--Sun's 386i essentially uses VP/ix,
for example.  VP/ix is *not* a generic name for DOS-under-UNIX, though...
there are other such animals.  VP/ix was developed by (and is a trademark
of) Interactive and Phoenix.

> ...But I would not run any sort of implementation of VP/ix
> (i.e. DOS Windows) on a 286 box because the 286 is brain damaged with respect
> to flipping in and out of protect mode, that and there's no virtual 8086 mode
> like the 386 has...

This is quite off.  VP/ix is a facility which works in a 386 UNIX system,
period.  The question of running VP/ix on a 286 simply cannot arise,
because you cannot run a 386 UNIX system on a 286.  But beyond that, VP/ix
makes explicit use of "virtual 8086 mode" which (as correctly noted) does
not exist on a 286.

(I suspect that when Archambeau said "any sort of implementation of VP/ix"
he really meant "any sort of DOS-under-UNIX"--which is not the same
thing.)
-- 
Dick Dunn     rcd@ico.isc.com    uucp: {ncar,nbires}!ico!rcd     (303)449-2870
   ...Keep your day job 'til your night job pays.