glenn@gatech.UUCP (Glenn Glover) (07/12/84)
<SEE! I told you this line doesn't begin with a blank!>
Just something for everyone to mull over here...For the past three weeks
PC WEEK magazine has been running a series of articles on the forth coming
announcement by IBM of an "ADVANCED PC" sometime in July. To summarize the
articles, the new machine will be a 6MHz 80286-based microcomputer complete
with 2 disk drives and a 20 megabyte hard disk. Although the 80286 supports
a "protected" mode of operation that offers users 16 megabytes of virtual
address space (great for multiuser, multitasking operating systems like
UNIX!!), the initial release will be "a single-user machine that uses very
little of the 80286's data-processing capabilities". Apparently, the
machine will be sold with PC-DOS and Xenix and will be capable of running
virtually all of the existing PC-DOS applications (in the "real" mode of
operation). Unfortunately, PC-DOS software will not run in the protected
mode.
So, what else does anyone out there in netland know about the "Advanced PC".
What kind of tools will be available to help develop products to run in
a protected mode? In addition to the 8086 instruction set, what kind of
additional instructions are provided by the 80286? Any rumors about new
versions of the floppy disk drives, keyboard, and graphics processors?
--
Glenn Glover
The Clouds Project, School of ICS, Georgia Tech, Atlanta GA 30332
Phone: (404) 894-6169, (404) 894-6170 [messages]
CSNet: Glenn @ GATech ARPA: Glenn%GATech.CSNet @ CSNet-Relay.ARPA
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