[OpenBIOS] Why protected mode?

[Timothy J. Massey]

On Thu, 15 Jul 1999 20:42:27 +0200 (CEST), Matthias W„chter wrote:

>On Thu, 15 Jul 1999, Timothy J. Massey wrote:
>
>> Only with a 32-bit processor can you realistically eliminate segmented
>> memory.
>
>Don't say that: There are some Xeon motherboards around (well, most of
>them are sold in complete supported systems) supporting 16GB of memory and
>more. Since you need more than 32 bits to address this space, they had to
>design work-arounds like segmentation (I don't know anything more about
>it). Even worse: The switching is done externally, by the chipset...

That only makes my point even more.  In that case, even 32-bit memory paths
are not enough.  If a 32-bit bus won't do it, why would you even attempt it
with a 16-bit CPU?

I'm not saying that 32 bits is all you need.  What I'm saying is that you
need at *least* 32 bits!

Tim Massey



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