From: muta...@gmail.com   
      
   On Monday, October 10, 2022 at 6:18:47 PM UTC+8, Joe Monk wrote:   
   > > Not sure what you're talking about.   
   > >   
   > > This is a once-off instruction to be executed.   
   > >   
   > Says who? What will stop me from executing it any time I want?   
      
   Nothing will stop you, but I doubt it will do   
   anything useful when the os has loaded all it's   
   content with a particular shift   
   value in effect and you choose   
   to switch it.   
      
   > > There is nothing magical about 4 bit   
   > > shifts that are totally memory efficient, zero   
   > > fragmentation, but 5 bits would be   
   > > totally horrendous, unacceptable to the   
   > > whole world without exception.   
   > >   
   > The 8086 has 20 address lines, but is a 16 bit architecture. 20-16 = 4.   
   >   
   > To do a 16-bit shift = you'll need 32 address lines - 16. How much extra   
   circuitry will that require?   
      
   The instruction would refuse to change the shift   
   value on an 8086. On an 80286 it would only   
   need to support a shift value up   
   to 8.   
      
   Almost no extra circuitry would be required.   
      
   An 80386 should support a shift of 16.   
   Almost no extra circuitry would be required.   
      
   > > Personally I want 2 mb of memory   
   > > rather than 1 MB, and I'll wear the   
   > > slightly inferior fragmentation.   
   > And how much are you going to pay? They would have to add the extra   
   circuitry to the chip for the extra address lines, produce them, and what will   
   be the production qty?   
      
   The cost is close to nothing because there   
   are no extra address lines.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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