History
The first DPMI specification drafts were published in 1989. Version 0.9 was published in 1990 by the DPMI Committee, and it was again extended in 1991 with version 1.0. An additional feature called "True DPMI" or "DOS API translation" was proposed by Ralph Lipe in the version 0.9 drafts, but never became part of the official specification (even not with 1.0); nevertheless, Windows implements this undocumented "True DPMI" nature. The official DPMI specification is available from Intel Literature Sales as well as online.
Note that the DPMI "method" is specific to MS-DOS and the IBM-PC. Other computer types were upgraded from 16-bit to 32-bit, and the advanced program support was provided by upgrading the operating system with a new 32 bit "API" and new memory management/addressing capabilities. For example, the OS/2 core system supports 32-bit programs, and can be run without the GUI. The DPMI solution appears to be mainly needed to address third party need to get DOS protected mode programs running stably on Windows 3.x before the dominant operating system vendor, Microsoft, could or would address the future of 32-bit Windows. In addition, Microsoft didn't see the answer to the 32-bit transition as a 32-bit DOS, but rather a 32-bit Windows with a completely different (and incompatible) API.
DPMI is tailored to run extended DOS application software in protected mode and extended memory, but it is not particularly well suited for resident system extensions. Another specification named DPMS specifically addresses requirements to easily relocate modified DOS driver software into extended memory and run them in protected mode, thereby reducing their conventional memory footprint downto small stubs.
Read more about this topic: DOS Protected Mode Interface
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“The greatest honor history can bestow is that of peacemaker.”
—Richard M. Nixon (1913–1995)
“The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more”
—John Adams (1735–1826)
“History does nothing; it does not possess immense riches, it does not fight battles. It is men, real, living, who do all this.... It is not “history” which uses men as a means of achieving—as if it were an individual person—its own ends. History is nothing but the activity of men in pursuit of their ends.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)