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- DOCUMENT:Q93498 04-NOV-1993 [W_NT]
- TITLE :Windows NT Doesn't Support B1 and Earlier 386s
- PRODUCT :Windows NT
- PROD/VER:3.10
- OPER/SYS:WINDOWS
- KEYWORDS:
-
- --------------------------------------------------------------
- The information in this article applies to:
-
- - Microsoft Windows NT operating system version 3.1
- --------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Summary:
-
- Windows NT does not support the B1 and earlier steppings of the Intel
- 80386 processor because of problems with these versions of the chip.
-
- More Information:
-
- Just as software manufacturers produce different versions of their
- software, chip manufacturers produce different versions of their
- chips. For Intel, the major version numbers are 8080, 8088, 8086,
- 80286, and so on. The minor version numbers are called steppings.
- There are both letter and number steppings, which correspond to bug
- fixes in the chip. The B1 stepping of the 80386, as well as all
- previous steppings, have problems in them that are difficult to work
- around. Two problems in particular can cause a B-step 386 to lock up
- when a 80387 instruction is run and paging is enabled.
-
- To determine whether your CPU is a B1 stepping or earlier, you should
- run the MS-DOS program, IBSTEP.EXE. This is part of the Win32 Software
- Development Kit and can be found on the CD-ROM in the SETUP\INSTALL
- directory. You can also identify B1 steppings by the number S40344 or
- S40362 on the chip. If your CPU is a B1 stepping or earlier, you need
- to contact the manufacturer of your system for a chip upgrade.
-
- Additional reference words: 3.10
- KBCategory:
- KBSubCategory: HRDWR
-
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- Copyright Microsoft Corporation 1993.