Xref: utzoo comp.unix.xenix:5027 comp.unix.microport:2852 misc.forsale:3689 Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!ico!rcd From: rcd@ico.ISC.COM (Dick Dunn) Newsgroups: comp.unix.xenix,comp.unix.microport,misc.forsale Subject: Re: 386/ix Applications Platform - CHEAP! Summary: DOS-under-UNIX stuff Keywords: 386/ix Message-ID: <15052@ico.ISC.COM> Date: 17 Feb 89 05:15:11 GMT References: <265@swusrgrp.UUCP> <1127@marlin.NOSC.MIL> Organization: Interactive Systems Corp, Boulder, CO Lines: 40 ron@ron.rutgers.edu (Ron Natalie) writes: > Nearly all the System V's for the 386 are Interactive Systems' port > anyway. It's just repackaged in various ways for end user sales. True to a first approximation...each seller (including Interactive) will add some features, but right about the base of the system. > It runs DOS applications pretty well under the UNIX (it's really > the 80386 that makes this easy, not the UNIX). This is not quite fair. The 386 makes it possible, by providing an 8086 mode that can look like a real 8086 to a program, yet be protected and caged in so it doesn't stomp on the rest of the universe. The hardware really provides a LOT of support for doing this. HOWEVER, there's a lot of software work involved in making things work with the UNIX world (so you can share files, the screen, etc.) That is, once you have the hardware mechanism to box in the 8086 program, you have to supply the software to reconnect the beast to reality. Well-behaved programs are easy, but there are various DOS program which are quite popular but quite ill-behaved-- they go around rewriting interrupt vectors, writing directly to device registers, etc....all the things you'd never even contemplate in the UNIX world. They have to run, and that presents some hard problems--particu- larly hard if you want them to run efficiently, since you can't just emulate everything. There's more than one 8086 DOS under UNIX gadget. VP/ix is the one Interactive and Phoenix (see next) did; it also shows up in some other vendors' systems under other names. >...They've adapted the Phoenix BIOS. Por supuesto...but because Phoenix and Interactive were partners in the development of VP/ix, this kind of begs the question. (Would Phoenix use somebody else's BIOS?) Disclaimer: I speak for myself, etc...but I work for Interactive, so I might know what I'm talking about here. -- Dick Dunn UUCP: {ncar,nbires}!ico!rcd (303)449-2870 ...Just say no to mindless dogma.