Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hplabs!otter!pwt
From: pwt@otter.hpl.hp.com (Peter Toft)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: Why call it Windows/286?
Message-ID: <10960003@otter.hpl.hp.com>
Date: 18 May 89 12:24:59 GMT
References: <89May12.000432edt.19614@me.utoronto.ca>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Laboratories, Bristol, UK.
Lines: 23

I think that the name Windows/286 was chosen because this version of windows 
was written to take sensible advantage of the 'High memory area'.  This is 
64k of memory at the top of the 1Mb address space, which is obviously only 
available to '286 processors and above, but which can be accessed by DOS if
an appropriate driver is used.

Windows/286 will run on 8086s, but Himem is unavailable, so it doesn't run as
well.  

In order to use Himem on 286/386 machines, you obviously need some memory in the
1Mb plus range (i.e. extended memory).

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