Dailydave mailing list archives
Re: luckily, there are no dumb questions (dan () geer org)
From: "Ed Schaller" <schallee () gmail com>
Date: Thu, 7 Jun 2007 22:35:19 -0500
VMS on the vax did use more than two rings. The lack of that feature caused some control systems to never upgrade from vms on vax. Xen virtualization, and I imagine others, utilizes multiple rings as well. On 6/7/07, johnny cache <johnycsh () gmail com> wrote:
Wouldn't a better question be: "how is it that -no- mainstream OS uses more than 2 rings on x86?" Or "How come nobody uses x86 segmentation(by default)?" I think the simple answer is that most operating system developers view these features as baggage that have no analogy on other platforms and therefore are to be avoided. Segmentation (by-and-large) got the axe on 64-bit x86 chips. Who's to say 4-rings wasn't next on the chopping block? If the features have been there and haven't been used in over a decade, its probably not a good idea to dust them off and start depending on them now. Writing an OS that made effective use of all 4 rings would not only be difficult, forward compatability on more "sane" CPUs is almost certain not to happen. Just my 2c. -jcDate: Thu, 07 Jun 2007 15:30:58 -0400 From: dan () geer org Subject: [Dailydave] luckily, there are no dumb questions Luckily, there are no dumb questions or this would likely be one. How is it so that MS Windows uses only Rings 0 & 3? An engineering answer, a marketing answer, and/or an historical answer would be welcome. Don't know why I never thought to ask before, but I'm asking now. (And if I'm really wrong, please tell me what uses 1|2.)_______________________________________________ Dailydave mailing list Dailydave () lists immunitysec com http://lists.immunitysec.com/mailman/listinfo/dailydave
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Current thread:
- Re: luckily, there are no dumb questions (dan () geer org) johnny cache (Jun 07)
- Re: luckily, there are no dumb questions (dan () geer org) Ed Schaller (Jun 08)
- Re: luckily, there are no dumb questions (dan () geer org) Philippe Langlois (Jun 08)