fakedsysadmin - 9:34 pm on Oct 15, 2008 (gmt 0)

Kaled, please let me educate you about a possible and important reason for "it took Microsoft ten years to make full use of the 386 architecture".

First, some background...

Look for the article "U.S. Adds Laptop Computers to Listing Of Products That Can Be Sold to Soviets" by Eduardo Lachica and published by the Wall Street Journal on August 15, 1989.

Abstracts from that article:

"The Commerce Department announced last month that it was lifting export curbs on a wide class of desktop computers. But the order carrying out that decision adds not only laptops but other, more powerful versions of International Business Machines Corp.'s PS/2 line than the original announcement covered..."

"Laptops and portable computers designed to take rough handling had been excluded at the Pentagon's insistence from the Commerce Department's preliminary order in July. That order did apply to a whole category of desktop computers, including the widely sold IBM AT models and their clones..."

"By slightly modifying its technical standards, the new order adds the IBM PS/2 Model 50 and its clones to the list of desktops to be taken off the control list. The earlier decision drew the line at the PS/2 Model 30 and their equivalents..."

"The order retains the existing curbs on shipments to a number of countries that pose foreign-policy problems for the U.S., including Libya, Cuba and Vietnam. The final order also restricts shipment to military and police organizations and certain other types of consignees in Nicaragua, Panama and South Africa."

Exports laws were a major constrain for U.S. software companies to fully exploit the capabilities of the 386.

Please remember the original IBM Personal System/2 included two configurations of the Model 30, based on the Intel 8086 processor; the Model 50 and two configurations of the Model 60, all of which used the Intel 80286 processor; and three configurations of the Model 80, based on the Intel 80386 processor.