[ale] multi tasking question

[Michael D. Hirsch]

On Thursday 03 October 2002 10:16 am, Vernard Martin wrote:
> On Thu, 2002-10-03 at 10:11, Stephen Turner wrote:
> > hey i read somewhere that 486's cant multi task but pentiums could,
> > that it starts with pentiums on up, now if linux is optimized for a
> > 386 or 486 does it still take advantage of multi tasking pentiums?
> > or does it even apply?
>
> The information that you read is incorrect. It is possibly for an OS
> to multi-task on a 386 and higher.

In fact, it is possible for an OS to multitask on an 8088 and higher, 
but the CPU doesn't help.  On a 386 and higher the CPU has built in 
support for multitasking.  Linux requires a 386, though there was once 
a project to backport it to the 286.

Anyone else ever see the OS/GUI called "GeoWorks" way back when?  It was 
a preemptively scheduled, multitasking, object oriented OS/windowing 
system that run on any DOS system with 640K of RAM.  It was truly 
amazing what it could do.  I'd say it rivaled KDE in its capabilitied 
and this was 10 years ago.  Of course, it got trounced by Windows 3.0 
which came out about the same time.

--Michael

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