tomk@intsc.UUCP (Tom Kohrs) (11/20/86)
> Recently, a friend of mine had some problems running a protected mode > operating system on an IBM AT. He traced it to an early and buggy lot > of 286 chips, a few of which he was unlucky enough to receive via IBM. IBM did ship a lot of PCAT's with B step parts. They were made aware of the problems that these parts had and they decided that they were acceptable for the product that they wanted to ship. The real drawback to this decision is that some of the bugs make it real difficult to write a multitasking os. With the installed base out there having unknown parts it is going to be hard on the software developers. One option would be to ship an E-step 286 with each copy of the software (small plug from someone with no personal interest (:-) ), this would have the added advantage of slowing down pirated copies. Anyone needing a copy of old (B-step) errata lists should get in touch with the local Intel sales office before investing a lot of time into a piece of software that maynot run on all machines. -- ------ "Ever notice how your mental image of someone you've known only by phone turns out to be wrong? And on a computer net you don't even have a voice..." tomk@intsc.UUCP Tom Kohrs Regional Architecture Specialist Intel - Santa Clara