Hardware Modes
The 8086 and 8088 support two hardware modes: maximum mode and minimum mode. Maximum mode is for large applications such as multiprocessing and is also required to support the 8087 coprocessor. The mode is hard-wired into the circuit and cannot be changed by software. Specifically, pin #33 (MN/MX) is either wired to voltage or to ground to determine the mode. Changing the state of pin #33 changes the function of certain other pins, most of which have to do with how the CPU handles the (local) bus. The IBM PC and PC/XT use an Intel 8088 running in maximum mode, which allows the CPU to work with an optional 8087 coprocessor installed in the math coprocessor socket on the PC or PC/XT mainboard. (The PC and PC/XT may require Max mode for other reasons, such as perhaps to support the DMA controller.)
Read more about this topic: Intel 8086
Famous quotes containing the words hardware and/or modes:
“A friend of mine spoke of books that are dedicated like this: “To my wife, by whose helpful criticism ...” and so on. He said the dedication should really read: “To my wife. If it had not been for her continual criticism and persistent nagging doubt as to my ability, this book would have appeared in Harper’s instead of The Hardware Age.””
—Brenda Ueland (1891–1985)
“my brain
Worked with a dim and undetermined sense
Of unknown modes of being; o’er my thoughts
There hung a darkness, call it solitude
Or blank desertion.”
—William Wordsworth (1770–1850)