Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!wuarchive!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!dptg!pegasus!psrc
From: psrc@pegasus.ATT.COM (Paul S. R. Chisholm)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: EEMS?
Summary: predecessor to EMS 4.0
Message-ID: <4321@pegasus.ATT.COM>
Date: 14 Dec 89 04:31:21 GMT
References: <1989Dec12.134830.9209@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 68

In article <1989Dec12.134830.9209@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu>, gene@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu (Majik Thise) writes:
> A friend of mine has heard of EEMS (Enhanced(?) Extended Memory
> System) that in effect blows the 640K memory size limit of
> multi-tasking programs away.  For instance, instead of only having
> 640k to run and load multiple programs under say, Desqview . . .
...
> My friend seems to think it has something to do with the AST
> computer company, if that will help any.

(There really is an answer to your question here; I just fell into a
funny mode, I mean, mood.)

In the beginning, Intel did design the 4004, and the 8008, and then the
mystical 8080.  And lots of people (notably Bill Gates) wrote software
for it, and said software took up most of the 64Kbytes that the chip
could address, and all was pretty good.

And then Intel did design the 8086, which had a sixteen bit data path,
and could address a megabyte (gosh, wow) of RAM, if you didn't mind
having most of it look bank selected  And Bill Lowe and Bill Gates did
write software and firmware for it, and they did say unto themselves,
"Wow, nobody's ever going to be able to afford a whole meg of RAM;
let's reserve all but six hundred and forty K of it unto ourselves."
And they used the cheaper 8088, too.  And all was not bad, for a while.

And then unto the world cam Mitch Kapor, and he said unto VisiCorp,
"Look, I'm getting a fifteen percent commission (!) on VisiPlot, how
'bout if you just give me a million bucks and we'll call it even?"  And
he took his million bucks to Ben Rosin, who threw in a few cents of his
own, and lo, a company called Lotus was born, and lo, it produced a
product called 1-2-3, and whoa, everybody and his sister bought a copy.

But then dark times came unto the folk of the Spread.  For they left
work each evening with a terrific headache, from bumping their heads
against a ceiling that said, "six hundred and forty K".  And they said
unto themselves, and unto the minions of Kapor, "Hey, isn't there
something you guys can do about this?"

So Lotus spoke unto Intel, and they didst sayest, "Hey, isn't there
something us guys can do about this?"  And they did put their heads
together (gently, so as not to get a headache), and they didst come up
with a way of doing bank select in hardware, outside of the one meg
limit, and a way that software could access this memory.  And at the
last minute, Bill Gates said he wanted to play, too, and they didst
call it the Lotus-Intel-Microsoft Expanded Memory Specification, or
EMS.  And things were less bad.

And time passed, and people said, "Gosh, only a sixteen K window into
this stuff?"  And AST and Desq and (I think) Ashton Tate did put their
heads together (gently; see above), and lo, they developed a
ninety-nine and forty-four hundredths percent compatible way of doing
bank select, and they did call it the Enhanced Expanded Memory
Specification, or EEMS.  And Desqview required no less.

And the LIM folks didst say unto themselves, "Hey, this is hot stuff."
And they took their EMS 3.2 description and the EEMS book, and they
didst put their heads together (ibid), and they did announce the Lotus
Intel Microsoft Expanded Memory Specification 4.0 (LIM EMS 4.0), and
lo, it was ninety-nine and forty-five percent compatible with EEMS, and
completely (I think) compatible with EMS 3.2.  And things were pretty
fair.

So, the answer is, just anything that requires EEMS should be satisfied
by EMS 4.0 memory.  Amen.

Paul S. R. Chisholm, AT&T Bell Laboratories
att!pegasus!psrc, psrc@pegasus.att.com, AT&T Mail !psrchisholm
I'm not speaking for the company, I'm just speaking my mind.