Re: Real-Mode of Intel processors!!

[James A Sutherland <james@sutherland.net>]

On Friday 01 March 2002 8:39 am, William Lee Irwin III wrote:
> On Fri, Mar 01, 2002 at 10:07:31AM +0200, Zwane Mwaikambo wrote:
> > Yep, i wonder if you could call SMM (System Management Mode) #4 then, but
> > thats another weird one. I think there should be a SPM (Sane Processor
> > Mode) where all the x86 brain damages all disappear and we can just get
> > on with our coding ;)
>
> Ah, but that would require emulation of SPARC, MIPS, PPC, or Alpha,
> which neither Intel nor AMD is likely to include in their next CPU.

x86-64 takes a few steps in that direction with Long mode, though... (No 
segmentation crap, nice big set of orthogonal registers, etc) with just 
enough baggage to make the transition from x86 bearable. A much better 
approach than Itanic, IMHO...


James.

Who really isn't a big fan of the register windows in SPARC - but at least 
THEY didn't include a big chunk of HARDWARE to spill registers to memory as 
needed... *ewww*! :)
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