Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ames!amdcad!pepsi!phil
From: phil@pepsi.amd.com (Phil Ngai)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc
Subject: Re: Brain-dead 286 - summary
Message-ID: <29449@amdcad.AMD.COM>
Date: 10 Mar 90 01:36:42 GMT
References: <8681@rosevax.Rosemount.COM> <206900171@prism>
Sender: news@amdcad.AMD.COM
Reply-To: phil@pepsi.AMD.COM (Phil Ngai)
Organization: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. Sunnyvale CA
Lines: 52

In article <206900171@prism> rob@prism.TMC.COM writes:
|  Also the various DOS multitaskers like Windows 386, VM/386, and so on.

DESQview 286 on a machine with EEMS seems to work about as well as
DV 386. (I've tried both) The virtual 8086 mode may in principle make
multitasking real mode processes easy but in practice it doesn't seem
to make a whole lot of difference in products that have been delivered
at this time. Neither Windows 386 or VM/386 are without their
own problems, I hear.

|>Windows, on the other hand, has a lot of software. And when 3.0
|>comes out, it will run in protected mode, allowing 16 megabytes of
|>memory, ON A 286.
|
|   It will still run better (offering multitasking of DOS applications
|and better virtual memory support) on a 386.

Have you seen this or are you assuming it? None of the "previews" of
Windows 3.0 that I've seen have mentioned this.

|The problem is that 286 protected mode is far 
|less versatile and powerful than 386 protected mode. That's why there's 

If you mean it doesn't have a large flat address space, that's true.
But for multi-tasking, the 286 has plenty of potential for running
protected mode programs.

|I agree it's unfortunate 
|that the 286 hasn't been used more fully, but at this point, that's not 
|very relevant.

It's quite relevant if you are interested in what software could
be written for the 286. The fact that it may be painful is made
up for by the incredible market that exists.

|And the extra cost of a 386, especially
|if you're willing to buy a non-name brand, is pretty marginal.

That's becoming less and less true as the shortage of 386s gets
worse. And the 386 market is a true monopoly.

|Given the narrowing cost difference between 286 and 386 machines, the group 
|of tasks for which the 286 is the CPU of choice is shrinking, and will
|continue to do so. 

On the contrary, I think that with software like Windows 3.0 coming
out, the type of tasks which the 286 does well is going to increase
dramatically.

--
Phil Ngai, phil@amd.com		{uunet,decwrl,ucbvax}!amdcad!phil
The Microsoft Mouse is the only mouse worth having on a PC.