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From: kevin@trsvax
Newsgroups: net.micro.pc
Subject: Re: Identifying an iAPX series processo
Message-ID: <53500027@trsvax>
Date: Wed, 19-Mar-86 17:43:00 EST
Article-I.D.: trsvax.53500027
Posted: Wed Mar 19 17:43:00 1986
Date-Received: Sat, 22-Mar-86 14:14:41 EST
References: <7901@watrose.UUCP>
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Nf-ID: #R:watrose.UUCP:7901:trsvax:53500027:000:929
Nf-From: trsvax!kevin    Mar 19 16:43:00 1986


> Question: is it possible to identify in software the type of processor
> a program is running on (assuming MS-DOS here...)?  I would like to
> know whether it's an 8088, 8086, 80188, 80186 or an 80286.  If it
> is possible, how do I do it?

Yes, it is possible, at least to distinguish between {8086|8088},
{80186|80188}, and 80286 flavors of processors.  The 8086 (and the 8088,
I guess) don't mask shift counts, so if you shift a 2 in AX by a number
of places greater than 16 (?or 32, maybe -- 32 works for sure) you'll
get a zero.  On the 186 and 286 you'll get a non-zero value.  To
distinguish between the 186 and the 286, do a PUSH SP, pop it into
another register and compare it.  The 186 pushes the SP value *after*
it's been decremented, the 286 pushes the SP value *before* it's
decremented.

I don't know if you can tell if you're on a *8 or *6 version processor,
though.

Good luck!
Kevin Dack
..ctvax!trsvax!kevin