On 30.08.2017 14:54, Peter Stuge wrote:
Compatibility is the only actual value of x86.Hi,
I was often wondering why they don't at least try to get rid of the *very* old stuff when it's not possible to get rid of the middle-old stuff.
It's understandable that it's necessary to provide a 32-bit-compatibility mode on 64-bit systems. It *was* understandable that it was necessary to provide a 16-bit-compatbility-mode then the first 32-bit-CPUs appeared. As far as I understood the Intel Programmer's Manual the CPUs provide a 16-bit compatibility-mode in 64-bit-long-mode...
I don't see a reason why it should be impossible to abolish Real Mode, Segmentation and basically everything beside Long-Mode and virtual 32 Bit-mode.
The Operating-System-Manufactures would need a bit of time to change their operating systems to be able to start without BIOS calls and remove the procedures to set up the flat segmentation.
Intel is powerful enough to make this change I believe. The question is if they benefit from changing x86, making it more modern.
By the way we shouldn't forget that behind the legacy-compatibility-stuff and the microcode a very strong, efficient and modern RISC-machine is alive.
P.