Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uwm.edu!psuvax1!psuvm!cunyvm!ndsuvm1.bitnet!nu013809
From: NU013809@NDSUVM1.BITNET (Greg Wettstein)
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.programmer
Subject: Re: Detecting an 80486
Message-ID: <4562NU013809@NDSUVM1>
Date: 27 Aug 90 12:47:36 GMT
References: <OTTO.90Aug15022916@tukki.j <9008211347.AA05979@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us>
Organization: North Dakota Higher Education Computer Network, Fargo, ND
Lines: 22
DISCLAIMER: Author bears full responsibility for contents of this article.

It is too bad that the original 8086(8) designers did not have omnipotent
foresight and forsee how well CMOS would scale into the future.  If they
would the following instruction would have been set in microcode:

                       LMTW  AX

For those of us not omnipotent this translates to Load Machine Type Word.
Where AX receives: (0 = 8086, 1 = 8088, 2 = 80186, 3 = 80286, 4 = 80386)

The only concern then is what happens when the number of processors
released exceeds the range of an unsigned 16 bit integer. ;-)

                             As always,
                             Dr. G.W. Wettstein
                             Roger Maris Cancer Center Computing Facility

                             UUCP: uunet!plains!wind!greg
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`The truest mark of a man's wisdom is his ability to listen to other
 men expound their wisdom.'