Re:The 640K memory limit of MS-DOS
by ajross on Saturday June 09, 2018 @06:47PM
(#17275446)
> Windows 95 was still an extender started from DOS and using its file access subsystem.
True, but sort of beside the point for this article. Using DOS as the equivalent of a bootloader and being too lazy[1] to write a proper block device layer doesn't really change the fact that win32 applications were run in 386 protected mode with their own 4G memory space.
[1] It's not actually insane in hindsight. Hard drive integration in the early 90's was a huge mess, with vendors putting all sort of crazy junk on their boards and gluing it together with BIOS hackery. The days of pervasive standards-compliant ATA were still in the future.
True, but sort of beside the point for this article. Using DOS as the equivalent of a bootloader and being too lazy[1] to write a proper block device layer doesn't really change the fact that win32 applications were run in 386 protected mode with their own 4G memory space.
[1] It's not actually insane in hindsight. Hard drive integration in the early 90's was a huge mess, with vendors putting all sort of crazy junk on their boards and gluing it together with BIOS hackery. The days of pervasive standards-compliant ATA were still in the future.