Real mode
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| x86 processor modes | |
| Mode | First supported |
|
Intel 8086 |
| Intel 80286 | |
| Intel 80386 | |
| Intel 80386 | |
| Intel 386SL | |
| AMD Opteron | |
Real mode, also called real address mode or compatibility mode, is an operating mode of 80286 and later x86-compatible CPUs. Real mode is characterized by a 20 bit segmented memory address space (meaning that a maximum of 1 MB of memory can be addressed), direct software access to BIOS routines and peripheral hardware, and no concept of memory protection or multitasking at the hardware level. All x86 CPUs in the 80286 series and later start in real mode at power-on; 80186 CPUs and earlier had only one operational mode, which is equivalent to real mode in later chips.
[edit] History
The 286 architecture introduced protected mode, allowing for (among other things) hardware-level memory protection. Using these new features, however, required a new operating system that was specifically designed for it. Since a primary design specification of x86 microprocessors is that they be fully backwards compatible with software written for all x86 chips before them, the 286 chip was made to start in 'real mode' — that is, in a mode which turned off the new memory protection features, so that it could run operating systems written for the 8086 and the 80186. To this day, even the newest x86 CPUs start in real mode at power-on, and can run software written for any previous chip.
The DOS operating systems (MS-DOS, DR-DOS, etc.) operate in real mode. Early versions of Microsoft Windows (which were essentially just graphical user interface shells running on top of DOS, and not actually operating systems per se) ran in real mode, until Windows 386, which ran in protected mode, and the more fully realized Windows 3.0, which could run in either real or protected mode. Windows 3.0 could actually run in two "flavours" of protected mode - "standard mode", which ran using protected mode, and "386-enhanced mode", which is a virtualized version of standard mode and thus would not run on a 286. Windows 3.1 removed support for Real Mode, and it was the first mainstream operating environment which required at least an 80286 processor. Almost all modern x86 operating systems (FreeBSD, Linux, OS/2, Solaris, Windows 95 and later, etc.) switch the CPU into protected mode at startup.
