Protected Mode: Difference between revisions

'''Protected mode''' is the 32 bit 'native' operating mode of Intel processors (and clones) since the 8038680286. ItOn 80386s and later, it allows the developer to work with several virtual address spaces, each of which has a maximum of 4GB of addressable memory and allows the system to enforce strict memory protection as well as restricting the available instruction set (so that your application cannot control the hard disk directly while the kernel can)