A 286 running like a 386? (2021)
My third home computer was an IBM PS&#x2F;2 Model 30 286. I was already an systems architecture nerd at that age, and so I was excited to get this new machine. I believe it came equipped with 256KiB RAM and 20MB HDD, among other things.<p>Of course I ran DOS for the most part, and DOS did absolutely nothing with 286&#x27;s special protected-mode features. Really, Windows 3.1 didn&#x27;t do anything with it either. Later, I eschewed DOS, upgraded to 2MiB RAM, and installed Minix, which turned into a really fun exploration of protected mode and its strict limitations, like the 64&#x2F;64 code&#x2F;data limit on each task.<p>286 protected mode, for its segmented memory model and all the fascinating advanced features, was more or less neglected by the consumer OSes of its time, and they bided their time until the fully 32-bit 386 with its flat memory model, able to address a huge amount of physical RAM. In retrospect, probably the correct decision. The 286 was a logical transition along the 8-to-32-bit path.