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From: richard@cogsci.ed.ac.uk (Richard Tobin)
Subject: Re: How to delete files within C programs
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References: <4mu7is$sro@web.nmti.com> <4mv2r7$ld3@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de> <4mvsjp$nhn@web.nmti.com>
Date: Sat, 11 May 1996 14:50:22 GMT
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Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.misc:22711 comp.unix.bsd.misc:1040
In article <4mvsjp$nhn@web.nmti.com> peter@nmti.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
>In article <4mv2r7$ld3@news.rhrz.uni-bonn.de>,
>Henry G. Juengst <juengst@saph1.physik.uni-bonn.de> wrote:
>> Normally the number of bits is given by the width of the data bus.
>For an operating system, which is a piece of software, the number of
>bits is given by the programming model.
Indeed. For example, I can see *nothing at all* in the FreeBSD kernel
that distinguishes between 386DX and 386SX, one of which has a 32-bit
bus and the other a 16-bit bus.
Did this nonsense about N-bit operating systems exist at all before
the days of DOS and MS-windows?
The things measured in bits that matter in an operating system are
the memory address space and the file and filesystem size. These may
be quite unrelated to the bus size. For example, Suns used not to
be able to handle disks bigger than 1GB - a serious problem - but
this was due to the SCSI implementation not the bus width.
-- Richard
--
"Hither turn thy steps, hither come to thy death and for Camilla
receive due guerdon! Shalt thou, even thou, die by Diana's darts?"
[Virgil, Aeneid X1 855-7]