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What was wrong with the 80286 was that Intel expected it to be used like processors are used now: Flipped into protected mode once at boot-up and kept there the

• hoodoof 11y ago
  Also it had a 24 bit address space when really the industry was ready for 32 bit and I have a vague recollection that there were other 32 bit CPUs available at that from other manufacturers (maybe Motorola?) but Intel was lagging. The 24 bit address space meant that developers had to deal with some sort of funky segmented addressing scheme I believe that was also a pain on the 8086 and I think a nice flat 32 bit memory space would have been a whole lot better. Bill Gates called the 80286 "brain dead". I seem to recall it being effectively a faster 8086 but its extra capabilities were both underpowered and impractical to use.