Ugh this brings back memories. After spending 1988-92 on ARM stuff (Acorn) I ended up doing something on DOS with assembly, well MASM. x86 was horrible in the 16-bit segmented mode. I finished the job off in Turbo Pascal in the end. To this day it scares me and I hadn't delved lower than C since.
Edit: I've still got a copy of MS DOS encyclopaedia sitting on my bookshelf actually. Signed by Gates. Ebay time!
The Intel manuals have become ever increasing in size
I remember around 2000 it was 3 manuals, last time I checked it was 5 or 6
New instructions, new functionality (virtualization) etc
But the old manuals still have a lot of relevant stuff, especially if you want to work at the low-level (like switching to protected mode, page tables, etc)
Intel has a "literature fulfillment" program where you could order hard copy manuals by SKU. It seems they've phased this out in favour of PDFs on a CD.
I believe I got all 3 volumes/5 books around 2008, each being hundreds of pages thick, thousands in total. The one I'm missing is the optimization reference, but that's what they look like (not my photo).
And it was free for me, including shipping to Canada. It might be worth a shot to see if they've started it up again.
I think it's technically seven now, though I know of no one with a paper copy. My not-quite-current PDF copy of the SDM splits its 3289 pages into three volumes, with volumes 2 and 3 being split into A, B and C subvolumes.
And yes, virtually everything remains compatible. So if you want to write a 32 bit code generator and don't need access to newer features (synchronization primitives are the most important bits that were added later, also stuff like vector instructions, etc...) that 30-year-old document is all you need.
I used to know that manual inside and out. Very nostalgic. I still have the original 8086 manual. Entire instruction set, plus pin layout, thermal specs, ... everything in one small manual.
[+] [-] batou|10 years ago|reply
Edit: I've still got a copy of MS DOS encyclopaedia sitting on my bookshelf actually. Signed by Gates. Ebay time!
[+] [-] raverbashing|10 years ago|reply
I remember around 2000 it was 3 manuals, last time I checked it was 5 or 6
New instructions, new functionality (virtualization) etc
But the old manuals still have a lot of relevant stuff, especially if you want to work at the low-level (like switching to protected mode, page tables, etc)
[+] [-] brynet|10 years ago|reply
http://i.imgur.com/odqvETR.jpg
I believe I got all 3 volumes/5 books around 2008, each being hundreds of pages thick, thousands in total. The one I'm missing is the optimization reference, but that's what they look like (not my photo).
And it was free for me, including shipping to Canada. It might be worth a shot to see if they've started it up again.
http://www.intel.com/design/literature.htm
[+] [-] ajross|10 years ago|reply
And yes, virtually everything remains compatible. So if you want to write a 32 bit code generator and don't need access to newer features (synchronization primitives are the most important bits that were added later, also stuff like vector instructions, etc...) that 30-year-old document is all you need.
[+] [-] bcheung|10 years ago|reply