[Info-vax] Intel proposal to simplify x86-64

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2023-06-06 19:55, Scott Dorsey wrote:
> John Dallman <jgd at cix.co.uk> wrote:
>> In article <63a25e5a-2001-451b-b8a7-d6d9e74b02f9n at googlegroups.com>,
>> xyzzy1959 at gmail.com (John Reagan) wrote:
>>
>>> Other than an impact on the boot loader due to the change in
>>> startup mode, it has essentially no impact on OpenVMS
>>>
>>> OpenVMS does not use ring 1 or 2.  The 64-bit mode PTEs don't
>>> include support for ring 1 or 2 today, just ring 0 and 3.
>>
>> Thanks, glad to hear it.
> 
> I'm not necessarily glad to hear it because I like the idea of keeping
> device drivers in a different ring than user processes or kernel....

Hmm. Am I misremembering something? As far as I can recall, device 
drivers in VMS (at least on VAX) are running in kernel mode. RMS in EXEC 
and DCL in SUPER (or was it the other way around?).

But the difference are really just what the access rights to different 
pages are. Kernel is the only one that truly is a bit more special.

   Johnny