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Sure. SCO/Microsoft Xenix. You could buy a PC AT or compatible clone, hang 2-4 terminals off it (the console gave you one extra) and run point of sale, physicia
by indymike 5y ago
Sure. SCO/Microsoft Xenix. You could buy a PC AT or compatible clone, hang 2-4 terminals off it (the console gave you one extra) and run point of sale, physician's office management software or accounting software. Terminals cost about 1/4 of what a 286 cost in 1986-1989 so you'd see a lot of it in small businesses, and there were a few chains that used it because they could use UUCP to send in data to the home office.
Fun. Here's a link to the programmer's guide: http://www.nj7p.org/Manuals/PDFs/Intel/174391-001.pdf http://www.nj7p.org/Manuals/PDFs/Intel/174391-001.pdf pages 2:17-2:22 cover the pointer and data type sizes. Amazing how little things have changed... and how different things are at the same time.
- CyberRabbi 5y agoExactly the type of thing I was hoping to see. Mind blowing the 286 could run a fully fledged Unix. I wonder what the process isolation story is, did everything run in the same address space? If so then were all binaries position-independent? Edit: answered my own question. So this is the obsolete segmentation isolation I’ve always read about!
- indymike 5y ago> Edit: answered my own question. So this is the obsolete segmentation isolation I’ve always read about! Yep. It was amazing what you could do with it. 286 was a chip that outside Xenix, Coherent and a few other multiuser OSes never really was fully utilized.