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From: doug@edge.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: New Dos from Microsoft
Message-ID: <631@edge.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 10-Apr-87 13:15:42 EST
Article-I.D.: edge.631
Posted: Fri Apr 10 13:15:42 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 12-Apr-87 19:56:14 EST
References: <705@imsvax.UUCP>
Organization: Edge Computer Corporation, Scottsdale, AZ
Lines: 24

> In late Feb at Microsoft's Systems Software Seminar the "New DOS"
> was discussed. From the description:
> 
> -  Single-user, multi-tasking
> -  300K to 600K of code? (DOS 3.2 takes about 50K)
> -  189 function calls (DOS 3.2 has about 70)
> -  Uses protected mode so applications cannot directly access hardware
> 
> ... I guess New DOS will
> really be SLOW DOS.  You remember that one of the main reasons 1-2-3
> was so successful was that it directly accessed hardware and so ran
> quite fast. With New DOS this apparently will not be possible?...

Another consideration:  if'n you put the '286 into protected mode, the
CPU *itself* slows way down!  So you end up with a slow CPU running
applications which have to do long, slow operating-system calls in order
to accomplish a simple "store byte into video buffer".

The '386 is perhaps even worse.  I am not surprised at published reports that
beta sites for "MS-DOS 5.0" (as it was called at the time) found that
a '386 machine running 5.0 was *slower* than a '286 machine running 3.x!
It ain't a bug in the DOS, folks.

-- Doug Pardee -- Edge Computer Corp. -- Scottsdale, Arizona