
Intel386
TM
DX MICROPROCESSOR
Segments may be overlapped in Real Mode. Thus, if
a particular segment does not use all 64K bytes an-
other segment can be overlayed on top of the un-
used portion of the previous segment. This allows
the programmer to minimize the amount of physical
memory needed for a program.
3.3 RESERVED LOCATIONS
There are two fixed areas in memory which are re-
served in Real address mode: system initialization
area and the interrupt table area. Locations 00000H
through 003FFH are reserved for interrupt vectors.
Each one of the 256 possible interrupts has a 4-byte
jump vector reserved for it. Locations FFFFFFF0H
through FFFFFFFFH are reserved for system initiali-
zation.
3.4 INTERRUPTS
Many of the exceptions shown in Table 2-5 and dis-
cussed in section 2.9 are not applicable to Real
Mode operation, in particular exceptions 10, 11, 14,
will not happen in Real Mode. Other exceptions
have slightly different meanings in Real Mode; Table
3-1 identifies these exceptions.
3.5 SHUTDOWN AND HALT
The HLT instruction stops program execution and
prevents the processor from using the local bus until
restarted. Either NMI, INTR with interrupts enabled
(IF
e
1), or RESET will force the Intel386 DX out of
halt. If interrupted, the saved CS:IP will point to the
next instruction after the HLT.
Shutdown will occur when a severe error is detected
that prevents further processing. In Real Mode,
shutdown can occur under two conditions:
An interrupt or an exception occur (Exceptions 8
or 13) and the interrupt vector is larger than the
Interrupt Descriptor Table (i.e. There is not an in-
terrupt handler for the interrupt).
A CALL, INT or PUSH instruction attempts to wrap
around the stack segment when SP is not even.
(e.g. pushing a value on the stack when SP
e
0001 resulting in a stack segment greater than
FFFFH)
An NMI input can bring the processor out of shut-
down if the Interrupt Descriptor Table limit is large
enough to contain the NMI interrupt vector (at least
0017H) and the stack has enough room to contain
the vector and flag information (i.e. SP is greater
than 0005H). Otherwise shutdown can only be exit-
ed via the RESET input.
4. PROTECTED MODE
ARCHITECTURE
4.1 INTRODUCTION
The complete capabilities of the Intel386 DX are un-
locked when the processor operates in Protected
Virtual Address Mode (Protected Mode). Protected
Mode vastly increases the linear address space to
four gigabytes (2
32
bytes) and allows the running of
virtual memory programs of almost unlimited size
(64 terabytes or 2
46
bytes). In addition Protected
Mode allows the Intel386 DX to run all of the existing
8086 and 80286 software, while providing a sophisti-
cated memory management and a hardware-assist-
ed protection mechanism. Protected Mode allows
the use of additional instructions especially opti-
mized for supporting multitasking operating systems.
The base architecture of the Intel386 DX remains
the same, the registers, instructions, and addressing
modes described in the previous sections are re-
tained. The main difference between Protected
Mode, and Real Mode from a programmer’s view is
the increased address space, and a different ad-
dressing mechanism.
Table 3-1
Function
Interrupt
Number
Related
Instructions
Return
Address Location
Interrupt table limit too small
8
INT Vector is not
within table limit
Before
Instruction
CS, DS, ES, FS, GS
Segment overrun exception
13
Word memory reference
beyond offset
e
FFFFH.
An attempt to execute
past the end of CS segment.
Before
Instruction
SS Segment overrun exception
12
Stack Reference
beyond offset
e
FFFFH
Before
Instruction
34