[A86] Re: ? [OT]

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[A86] Re: ? [OT]


To your first remark: com files 64k max.
And your fourth: If we have a Mac and a PC of equal clock speeds (Mhz) for them 
to do the same task the Mac will more offen than not compleat the task first.

By the by, Macs (G3,G4,G4 Cube, IMac) don't have fans on there cpu's, heck the 
G4 Cube doesn't have any fan what so ever :-P lets see a PeeCee do that. 

Quoting rabidcow@juno.com:

> 
> what?
> 
> afaik, 32-bit protected mode has no memory restrictions related to the
> 8086.
> There is a limit to a 4GB address range (per task), but that's because
> everything is limited to 32 bits.  Actually, I bet a really sneaky os
> could extend that using segment registers, but it wouldn't really be
> worth it.
> 
> Most of the 8086 instructions are still useful, defaulting to 32 bits
> rather than 16.  The main problem with supporting them (besides the extra
> hardware to decode them, not a minor issue) is that they take up some of
> the shorter (8-bit) opcode values forcing newer instructions to be
> longer.  Variable length instructions are generally a bad thing anyway
> for modern processors.
> 
> Have you seen anything about IA-64?  It has "modes" supporting older
> processors as intel has done in the past, but in the native ia64 mode,
> older instructions *aren't* supported.  Instructions are packed into
> fixed length structures (up to 3 in each 128-bit "bundle"), there's two
> large register stacks, predicate registers for conditional execution
> (less cmp/jmp speedbumps).  It really seems optimized for c-like
> languages.  They don't seem to have left themselves room to add extra
> features tho. (like MMX, SIMD, etc)
> 
> *sniff* and there's no rotate instruction!!
> 
> and to get *really* picky ;), "of equal speed" doesn't mean anything.  I
> could say they're "of equal speed" if the take the same amount of time
> for a given task.  Then, by definition, that Mac couldn't take less time
> if it's of equal speed.  You could say they're of equal speed if a given
> instruction takes the same amount of time.  Then it's a matter of which
> takes more instructions for the task.  You could say equal clock speed,
> then even previous generations of x86 chips would finish in less time.  A
> better measurement might be of equal cost or equal heat output.
> 
> -josh
> 
> 
> On Tue, 6 Mar 2001 23:22:19 -0600 (CST) Shawn Ells <sells@inetnebr.com>
> writes:
> > 
> > In all accuality we really need to start over with compuers.
> > The x86 still has the old 8086 op codes, and some of the memory addr 
> > restrictions. Thats why if a Mac and PC of equal speed are set to do 
> > the same 
> > task that the Mac will get done first.
> > 
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