Hi Pat, > 3. A built-in network TCP/IP stack.
I would not build it into the kernel, but making Wattcp sort of modular, with a resident part, would be useful. For example it would avoid the "do DHCP handshake again for each app" thing. > real mode execution on ia32 and x86_64, and emulation on others, > or native execution of DOS API. Why would you support non-x86 platforms? There are no non-x86 DOS apps anyway... Emulation is something for a VM, such as Dosemu-with-cpuemu, Bochs, Qemu, VMWare... Not a thing to put into the DOS kernel, if you ask me. Of course you could move the kernel into protected mode, but I do not remember that FD32 would be a lot better or faster than "classic DOS" with apps which use classic DOS extenders (cwsdpmi, dos32a, dos4gw). > There seems to be no concern for multi processor/multi core > platforms, power management, among other things. It might be fun to work multi core, but the complexity overhead is a problem and multi core single tasking is an odd mix ;-). Multi tasking would require more virtual hardware, and classic task swapping a la dosshell has no use for multi core. Maybe one could write a "DOS supervisor" which runs DOS on one core and seventeenorbust.com or SETI at Home on the other :-). Similar case: It would be possible to make HIMEM able to use memory above 4 GB, but then one would need something which can actually use so much RAM. Maybe mount a DVD ISO in RAM. Copying my whole DOS partition into RAM needs less than 4 GB anyway, and I would have to copy back all changes before I reboot, so that is no good example. Moving stuff to RAM can save energy nevertheless. Imagine using your DOS as media player with RAM instead of flash, copying media to RAM and then spinning down the disk after booting. But remember: ANY PC uses 100 times more electrical energy than a normal mp3 player or even an i Pod. Power Mgmt is certainly interesting, so FDAPM and PCISLEEP cover that topic. However, there is no support for complex things such as suspend to RAM or disk (unless provided by the BIOS). On the other hand, DOS boots in seconds anyway. If you have suggestions for Power Mgmt, let me know :-). One thing that comes into mind is "run CPU at lower speed and voltage", only "throttle CPU" is supported already in FDAPM. Eric ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by: Splunk Inc. Still grepping through log files to find problems? Stop. Now Search log events and configuration files using AJAX and a browser. Download your FREE copy of Splunk now >> http://get.splunk.com/ _______________________________________________ Freedos-devel mailing list Freedos-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/freedos-devel
