Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!pasteur!agate!ig!uwmcsd1!bbn!rochester!ur-tut!ur-valhalla!micropen!dave
From: dave@micropen (David F. Carlson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: OS/2 under UNIX futures
Message-ID: <418@micropen>
Date: 1 Mar 88 19:11:02 GMT
References: <340004@hpsrli.HP.COM> <20246@bu-cs.BU.EDU>
Organization: Micropen Dirent Writing Systems, Pittsford, NY
Lines: 25
Summary: Can't be done at present

In article <20246@bu-cs.BU.EDU>, madd@bu-cs.BU.EDU (Jim Frost) writes:
> In article <340004@hpsrli.HP.COM> waynec@hpsrli.HP.COM (Wayne Cannon) writes:
> >Has anyone heard anything about the future of OS/2 running under
> >UNIX/XENIX?  My concern is the long term viability of a strategy based
> >on VP/ix or DOS Merge as OS/2 becomes more prevalent.
> 
> The way it's designed (emulation box, etc), I would doubt very much
> that OS/2 would ever run under UNIX except on an emulated machine.
> jim frost : madd@bu-it.bu.edu

Problem is that (unlike DOS) OS/2 and UNIX SV require protected mode
execution.  VP/ix and DOSMerge run on 80386 in a virtual machine mode
known as VM86 to emulate exactly DOS.  Corresponding 80286 mode switches
are undocumented and un-protected!  (That is, an ill behaved DOS program
can/will crash UNIX or OS/2 compatibility box and other DOS-under-protected
mode programs.)  The big catch to OS/2 under UNIX is that current Intel
processors do not have a 80286 virtual machine.  If a hypothetical future
chip (80486?) supported this, there is no reason that OS/2 for 80286
would not be able to be run as a VM just as DOS is today.  


-- 
David F. Carlson, Micropen, Inc.
...!{ames|harvard|rutgers|topaz|...}!rochester!ur-valhalla!micropen!dave

"The faster I go, the behinder I get." --Lewis Carroll