Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!ncar!gatech!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!ncoast!allbery
From: allbery@NCoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KB8JRR/AA)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Subject: Re: 8-bit death
Message-ID: <1991May10.001109.7685@NCoast.ORG>
Date: 10 May 91 00:11:09 GMT
References: <160.tnews@ping.actrix.gen.nz> <3133.tnews@templar.actrix.gen.nz>
Reply-To: allbery@ncoast.ORG (Brandon S. Allbery KB8JRR/AA)
Followup-To: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy
Organization: North Coast Public Access Un*x (ncoast)
Lines: 29

As quoted from <3133.tnews@templar.actrix.gen.nz> by jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz (John Bickers):
+---------------
| Quoted from <160.tnews@ping.actrix.gen.nz> by ping@ping.actrix.gen.nz (Peter Ingham):
| > Quoted from <...unknown> by jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz (John Bickers):
| > >     When one calls an MS-DOS "interrupt" (haw, reminds me of the C= 64),
| > >     isn't the interrupt number a byte?
| 
| > This is a Hardware design restraint rather than a feature (or lack of it) 
| > in any particular 808x OS.
| 
|     The OS is supposed to be tied to the hardware... the smaller the
|     CPU, the more likely this is to be. This is exactly why so many
|     people think of MS-DOS as an 8-bit (or less) OS.
+---------------

???  Look up the "trap" instruction in a 680x0 assembler manual and say that
again.  If you're thinking of the 1010 and 1011 traps, they're a rather
expensive way to get an extra 8192 "interrupts"....

MS-DOS is considered an 8-bit OS because the 8088 processor looks a lot like
an 8-bit processor, granted --- but interrupts have a lot less to do with it
than those stupid segment registers.

++Brandon
-- 
Me: Brandon S. Allbery			  Ham: KB8JRR/AA  10m,6m,2m,220,440,1.2
Internet: allbery@NCoast.ORG		       (restricted HF at present)
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