Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!dali.cs.montana.edu!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!ames!amdahl!JUTS!duts!kls30
From: kls30@duts.ccc.amdahl.com (Kent L Shephard)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: 8-bit death
Message-ID: <69VT02ZW07LF01@JUTS.ccc.amdahl.com>
Date: 7 May 91 16:09:32 GMT
References: <1991Apr28.122439.13393@sugar.hackercorp.com> <1991Apr28.162045.15585@daffy.cs.wisc.edu> <1991Apr30.112820.2451@sugar.hackercorp.com> <1991May1.064455.3058@kessner.denver.co.us> <2945.tnews@templar.actrix.gen.nz>
Sender: netnews@ccc.amdahl.com
Reply-To: kls30@DUTS.ccc.amdahl.com (Kent L. Shephard)
Organization: Amdahl Corporation, Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 33

In article <2945.tnews@templar.actrix.gen.nz> jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz (John Bickers) writes:
>Quoted from <1991May1.064455.3058@kessner.denver.co.us> by david@kessner.denver.co.us (David Kessner):
>
>> the instruction set to it's registers indicate this.  MS-DOS fully
>> utilizes all of the 8088 features, so I will classify it as a 16 bit OS.
>
>    When one calls an MS-DOS "interrupt" (haw, reminds me of the C= 64),
>    isn't the interrupt number a byte?
>
>    That's a fundamental part of the OS that is only 8 bits.

WRONG.  The Intel 80x86 limits you to 256 vectors for interrupts.  That
does not mean that the OS is eight bits.  The hardware only supports that
many vectored interrupts.  So since the hardware only supports a vector
of 1 byte, you'll say that the 80x86 machines are only 8 bit because that
is how long the interrupt vector is.

How many cpus have vector tables as long as the number of bits in their
data types.  I seriously doubt if you can name me a 32bit machine that
uses all 32 bits to identify vectors in the vector table.

>
>> David Kessner - david@kessner.denver.co.us            | do {
>--
>*** John Bickers, TAP, NZAmigaUG.        jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz ***
>***         "Endless variations, make it all seem new" - Devo.          ***


--
/*  -The opinions expressed are my own, not my employers.    */
/*      For I can only express my own opinions.              */
/*                                                           */
/*   Kent L. Shephard  : email - kls30@DUTS.ccc.amdahl.com   */