Updated: April 19, 2023 |
Switches the x86 processor to protected mode (non-BIOS systems)
This assembly call switches the x86 processor to protected mode. It is for non-BIOS systems only. The code is designed to be completely position-independent.
This call must be called with a pointer to a 16-byte area of memory that's used to store the Global Descriptor Table (GDT). This pointer is in ds:ax.
When this call returns, the DS and ES registers will have been set to selectors that can access the entire 4 GB address space. The following selectors are defined: