OSDev.org

berkus wrote:Wow, are you guys really coding for the 80186??! Wow!

I am, I feel like coding for a minimal configuration is a good, fun challenge.

EDIT: and pulling a UD2 is fun

It's one of those strange gifts. The most important part of it was POPA and PUSHA.

Troy Martin wrote:The most important part of it was POPA and PUSHA.

Which can be simply simulated on a 8086 and its even faster to do so.

berkus wrote:Nice, I've never seen a 80186 in real life. 8086 and 80286 yes, but never a 80186 :(

The 80186 was used mostly in embedded systems, as it includes a PIC, PIT etc. on-dye. I've seen them used in ECRs, for example (the TEC FT-77, to be precise).


JAL

cyr1x wrote:

Troy Martin wrote:The most important part of it was POPA and PUSHA.

Which can be simply simulated on a 8086 and its even faster to do so. :roll:

No it's not. In raw clock cycles yes, but don't forget instruction fetching.


JAL

How did a discussion about the frontiers of OS design & theory become a discussion about a nearly 30-year-old CPU?

No future without a past, I guess
Topic split, go bump it if you want.

The 186 is only 25-ish years old, was first produced in 1982. Still, it's fun to program for it!

Troy Martin wrote:The 186 is only 25-ish years old, was first produced in 1982. Still, it's fun to program for it!

Do you actually own one (or several)? What type of hardware is it? Ordinary PC-clone?


JAL

I don't own a box with one (they weren't widely known, as you can see here) mostly because they were for the embedded market IIRC.

Troy Martin wrote:I don't own a box with one (they weren't widely known, as you can see here) mostly because they were for the embedded market IIRC.

So how do you test? Or do you just use modern hardware?


JAL

I just use modern hardware but I like restricting it so that someone with a box from 1984 can use my OS.

Edit: Alex, how did you get that font for your graphics mode?

Troy Martin wrote:I just use modern hardware but I like restricting it so that someone with a box from 1984 can use my OS.

But they can't, can they? Noone had a 186, so you effectively target 286 boxes. Which were available/affordale from 87/88. Why not target the 8086/88? Then I'd at least be able to run it on my XT :). Also, the hardware from that era is quite different from the current, no IDE etc. I'm even not sure whether INT 13 was available for those old MFM harddisks (ST-157A FTW :)).


JAL

jal wrote:

Troy Martin wrote:I just use modern hardware but I like restricting it so that someone with a box from 1984 can use my OS.

But they can't, can they? Noone had a 186, so you effectively target 286 boxes. Which were available/affordale from 87/88. Why not target the 8086/88? Then I'd at least be able to run it on my XT . Also, the hardware from that era is quite different from the current, no IDE etc. I'm even not sure whether INT 13 was available for those old MFM harddisks (ST-157A FTW ).


JAL

According to Ralph Brown's 'PC Interrupts' INT 13 and most of its sub functions are available for 'All Machines'.

abachler wrote:According to Ralph Brown's 'PC Interrupts' INT 13 and most of its sub functions are available for 'All Machines'.

Yes, a quick google turns up this page which has some more information.


JAL