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From: don@gitpyr.gatech.EDU (Don Deal)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.intel
Subject: POPF still broken in 286?
Message-ID: <2646@gitpyr.gatech.EDU>
Date: Sun, 16-Nov-86 21:07:10 EST
Article-I.D.: gitpyr.2646
Posted: Sun Nov 16 21:07:10 1986
Date-Received: Mon, 17-Nov-86 07:04:35 EST
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology
Lines: 18


   IBM put a warning in the AT Technical Reference, and I can remember 
several people complaining about a problem with the POPF instruction that
allowed interrupts to be processed even when interrupts had been disabled.
Was this problem fixed in subsequent masks for the 286, or does it still
exist?

   That a problem like this could occur (and has with vendors other than
Intel) makes me wonder what kind of testing goes on before products are
released to market.   Given that increasingly complicated architectures
are showing up in most microprocessor families, it would seem that additional
testing is in order.  Is anyone familiar with the testing cycles that go
on for microprocessors? 

-- 
D.L. Deal, Office of Computing Services, Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA, 30332-0275
Phone: (404) 894-4660   ARPA: don@pyr.ocs.gatech.edu  BITNET: cc100dd@gitvm1
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