> I am still working on understanding the difference
> between the flat model and segmented model of addressing memory
> in the x86 processor. Heh.

That way lies madness.  It was a failed attempt to simply extend the 16-bit
pointers on the CPU to cover the 20-bit address bus of the 808x, but it
ended up making things really confusing.  Basically, the segment address is
shifted by four bits and added to the pointer address -- which leads to
strange overlaps in the address space.  Flat addressing is a lot simpler.

> I did know about 'Wine', and emulators, but those, as I
> understand it, are not operating systems, but just programs that
> provide an interface layer between the non-OS programs, and the
> OS, to direct I/O and resource allocations properly.

Yes, sort of.  I don't know why Wine crept in there.  What wine does is
execute the x86 code but emulating all the Windows bits like use of DLLs,
then provides the core services the Windows kernel does.

Emulators like bochs, on the other hand, actually emulate a processor.
Bochs will run PC x86 code on any platform, there are Apple emulators and so
forth too.

> My most powerful machine is no-where near powerful enough to do
> this; a single PIII processor, 128MB RAM.

That ought to run VMware OK -- it won't be blisteringly fast, but I'd guess
it'd be around typical PII performance or better.  I've run it on my PII-400
in the past.

Regards,
Ben A L Jemmett.
(http://web.ukonline.co.uk/ben.jemmett/, http://www.deltasoft.com/)

To unsubscribe from SURVPC send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with 
unsubscribe SURVPC in the body of the message.
Also, trim this footer from any quoted replies.
More info can be found at;
http://www.softcon.com/archives/SURVPC.html

Reply via email to