Xref: utzoo comp.sys.intel:1306 comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware:440
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!ria!uwovax!baer
From: baer@uwovax.uwo.ca
Newsgroups: comp.sys.intel,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware
Subject: 386sx chip
Message-ID: <6533.26ae1cf6@uwovax.uwo.ca>
Date: 26 Jul 90 02:28:04 GMT
Lines: 19

I was recently told by a systems hardware salesperson (trying to
push 386 DX systems over 386 SX systems) that there are software 
compatibility issues for 32-bit software and SX-based systems.
He implied that OS/2 2.0 will probably not run on an SX, and 32-bit
applications most certainly will not, because of the memory addressing
limitations of the SX (he said that software developers *could* rewrite
32-bit applications to make them run on the SX, but software designed 
for DX-based systems could crash on SX systems.  Could anyone provide
information on this issue?   I understood the 386sx chip to be completely
compatible (except for slower memory addressing due to the 16-bit path),
but is there a limitation around the amount of memory the SX is capable
of addressing, or how it addresses this memory?



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Douglas Baer,  Dept. of Sociology,
University of Western Ontario, London, Canada N6A 5C2
Internet: BAER@UWO.CA    Bitnet: BAER@UWOVAX