UNIX and PC mem betwx 640K-1MB

Cliff C Heyer cliffhanger at cup.portal.com
Thu May 31 11:54:20 AEST 1990


I'm wanting to check my line of thinking...

Compared to the 680X0 machines, I found myself
thinking that UNIX on the 80X86 architecture 
might be a bit more complicated because the
ROM and VRAM located above 640K. You don't
have a clear linear address space even with
a 386 in protected mode because the PC
architecture hard wires this memory into
certain locations.

Is this true or do 680X0 machines also
have VRAM and ROM at certain memory 
locations? 

Also is there any truth to the idea that UNIX is 
more cumbersome on PC platforms 
compared to minicomputer-type platforms
that have no ROM or VRAM in their address space?

Also does UNIX on a PC use the BIOS?

Cliff



More information about the Comp.unix.i386 mailing list