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From: cpmwc@marlin.jcu.edu.au (Matthew W Crowd)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: 8-bit death
Message-ID: <1991Apr27.155155.12730@marlin.jcu.edu.au>
Date: 27 Apr 91 15:51:55 GMT
References: <16928@chopin.udel.edu> <2584.tnews@templar.actrix.gen.nz> <1991Apr26.085327.1@vf.jsc.nasa.gov>
Organization: James Cook University of North Queensland
Lines: 32

In article <1991Apr26.085327.1@vf.jsc.nasa.gov> kent@vf.jsc.nasa.gov writes:
>In article <2584.tnews@templar.actrix.gen.nz>, jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz (John Bickers) writes:
>> Quoted from <02J7020m07rC01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com> by kls30@duts.ccc.amdahl.com (Kent L Shephard):
>>> >MS-DOS is an 8-bit operating system. As is MacOS (a VW Beetle with a great
>>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>> WRONG.  If MS-DOS was an 8-bit OS you would not have 16-bit anything
>>> built in.  In fact you do.  CPM was 8-bit  MS-DOS is 16-bits.  The
>> 
>>     I suspect the original poster was refering to MS-DOS being
>>     embarassingly small and puny.
>
>Actually, MS-DOS started out as a 8 bit operating system since the
>orignal PC as 8 bit based.  Just because you have a 16 bit ore 32 bit 286 or
>386 that does not mean the OS or the application programs are executing 32 wide
>instructions.  A lot of programs are faster only because the clock speed of the
>286 and 386 machines are faster.... the programs still execute 8 bit
>instructions.....  
>
>#define TRUE 1
>#define FLAME_SUPPRESSION_SYSTEM TRUE
>
>	I'm ready for your responses.....
>
>--
>Mike Kent -  	Lockheed Engineering and Sciences Company at NASA JSC
>		2400 NASA Rd One, Houston, TX 77058 (713) 483-3791
>		KENT@vf.jsc.nasa.gov

This is wrong, MS-DOS is a 16bit operating system, 386's are the ones
who don't benefit while running MS-DOS.

matt.