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From: ray@othervax.UUCP (Raymond D. Dunn)
Newsgroups: net.micro
Subject: Re: 386 Family Products
Message-ID: <742@othervax.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 16-Dec-85 10:07:41 EST
Article-I.D.: othervax.742
Posted: Mon Dec 16 10:07:41 1985
Date-Received: Thu, 19-Dec-85 05:55:16 EST
References: <129@intelca> <4400130@uiucdcsb> <6185@utzoo.UUCP> <433@ecn-pc.UUCP> <434@ecn-p <6227@utzoo.UUCP>
Reply-To: ray@othervax.UUCP (Raymond D. Dunn)
Organization: Philips Information Systems - St. Laurent  P.Q., Canada
Lines: 44

In article <6227@utzoo.UUCP> henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
responds to my earlier article (without acknowledgement):

>> The 386 segmentation registers give *additional* functionality over
>> say, the 680x0.
>
>Useless additional functionality.  Tailfins.
>
>> The 386 segmentation registers do *not* decrease functionality or
>> ease of use, as they did on the 8086.
>
>True, since virtually everyone will run "small model" on the 386, i.e.
>ignoring the segmentation almost completely.

In the past I have considered Henry's postings relatively rational
and intelligent.  Why is he now repeatedly firing off cheap shots at
the 386 which ignore reality?  There's plenty of valid arguments to
be used against the 386 if you so want, as well as some very good
ones.

On the 386, "small model" (which of course does not exist per se) is
4 Gigabytes.

If you re-read his posting, you see that he is not stating any factual
errors, only presenting them in a way which is irrationally
derogatory to the 386.

OK, but lets move that discussion to net.politics, and use this news
category to act like the professionals we are supposed to be.  In
that way it may be possible to retain our plausibility.

The posting he used as the basis for his statements was one
attempting to debunk the misconception that segmentation on the 386
gives the same disadvantages as on earlier x86 processors.

He says that the segmentation registers give nothing and wont be used
by anyone.

Fine, I'm willing to accept that as the basis of a discussion.  So
now instead of using those features as an invalid argument *against*
the 386, lets ignore them and look at the rest of the chip (and read
the data sheets, so that we can discuss *facts*).

Ray Dunn.  ..philabs!micomvax!othervax!ray