Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!sun-barr!cs.utexas.edu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!utgpu!cunews!bnrgate!bwdls58!mlord
From: mlord@bwdls58.bnr.ca (Mark Lord)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: Difference between a 386 and a 386sx
Message-ID: <4388@bwdls58.UUCP>
Date: 19 Sep 90 15:07:52 GMT
References: <935@sppy00.UUCP> <1477@sirius.ucs.adelaide.edu.au> <1412@svin02.info.win.tue.nl>
Sender: mlord@bwdls58.UUCP
Reply-To: mlord@bwdls58.bnr.ca (Mark Lord)
Organization: Bell-Northern Research, Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 17

>This suggests that a way to distinguish a 386dx from a 386sx in software
>would be to put some value in existing memory at address 0x00xxxxxx
>and read it from address 0x01xxxxxx. If it comes out the same you would
>be running on a 386sx (not having the upper 8 bits of address bus),
>otherwise a 386dx.

But not many machines have physical memory in the hundreds of megabytes
ranges.. so regrettably, I doubt that this would work in practice.

Use virtual memory you say?  Well.. in that case a 386sx will do the
exact same internal translation as a 386dx, producing no observable 
differences either.  Better luck next time.
-- 
 ___Mark S. Lord__________________________________________
| ..uunet!bnrgate!mlord%bmerh724 | Climb Free Or Die (NH) |
| MLORD@BNR.CA   Ottawa, Ontario | Personal views only.   |
|________________________________|________________________|