[coreboot] REPLY: INT 13H

[Peter Stuge]

Philipp Stanner wrote:
> As far as I understood the Intel Programmer's Manual the CPUs
> provide a 16-bit compatibility-mode in 64-bit-long-mode...

Every new CPU comes out of reset in 16-bit mode, just like 8086.


> 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 reason is millions if not billions of MS-DOS systems.


> The question is if they benefit from changing x86, making it more
> modern.

I made this point before:

> > Compatibility is the only actual value of x86.

So in a word: No.

It can only hurt, potentially making the whole architecture obsolete.


//Peter