Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!ucbvax!husc6!cfa!ward From: ward@cfa.harvard.EDU (Steve Ward) Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc Subject: Re: Breaking the 640K Barrier Summary: PC-DOS 3.4 with major additions seems VERY likely... Message-ID: <839@cfa.cfa.harvard.EDU> Date: 13 Dec 87 20:10:53 GMT References: <3116@batcomputer.tn.cornell.edu> <45900094@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu> Organization: Harvard-Smithsonian Ctr. for Astrophysics Lines: 30 In article <45900094@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu>, zinzow@uxe.cso.uiuc.edu writes: > > Regarding Dos 3.4, it is certainly strange to hear all these conflicting > reports. I would guess that the IBM Dos 3.3 Tech Ref. is the last because > no more fundamental changes are going into Dos with OS/2 out now. However, > the official (at least according to ASKINFO, IBM's tech. support) word is > that there will be another release of Dos to fix some of the bugs in 3.3. > Perhaps it will only be another update, probably 3.31 or something. Actually, version 3.4 looks very likely and will have Desqview-like expanded memory and limited multitasking support. Rumor has it that the Desqview product popularity and excellent functionality has forced Microsoft to come out with these additions themselves. For a more specific idea of what these additions will be, get a Desqview product brochure. Basically, via EMS4.0 memory, the added DOS features will support task swapping and memory swapping so that multiple programs can be memory resident within a much larger memory space and so that existing programs that are memory hogs (CAD/CAE, for example) will have huge memory available, all transparent to programs, meaning all existing applications should take advantage of the new features transparently, without program changes -- the programs will not have to know anything about the extended memory. Time will tell, as all of this is rumor, but I have seen it all quoted from Microsoft sources in print several times. Of course, Shirley McClaine gets a lot of print, too. :-)