[coyotos-dev] Support for i486

[Jonathan S. Shapiro]

Can somebody refresh my memory on this issue?

Having support for both legacy and PAE-mode mappings in our kernel
creates a surprising amount of complexity. I am wondering why we cannot
eliminate PTE support.

I know that pre-Pentium processors do not support PAE. At this point, I
am willing to give up i486 support in order to drop support for the
legacy mapping system.

What is the story on embedded IA-32 processors? Are there any in
widespread use that do NOT support PAE mappings? It looks to me like the
VIA family *does* support PAE mode. Which processors do NOT, and how
widely are they used?

[ Another option would be to compile two kernels and select one
dynamically at startup. ]

shap