MSW - Machine Status Word (286+ only) |31|30-5|4|3|2|1|0| Machine Status Word | | | | | | +---- Protection Enable (PE) | | | | | +----- Math Present (MP) | | | | +------ Emulation (EM) | | | +------- Task Switched (TS) | | +-------- Extension Type (ET) | +---------- Reserved +------------- Paging (PG) Bit 0 PE Protection Enable, switches processor between protected and real mode Bit 1 MP Math Present, controls function of the WAIT instruction Bit 2 EM Emulation, indicates whether coprocessor functions are to be emulated Bit 3 TS Task Switched, set and interrogated by coprocessor on task switches and when interpretting coprocessor instructions Bit 4 ET Extension Type, indicates type of coprocessor in system Bits 5-30 Reserved bit 31 PG Paging, indicates whether the processor uses page tables to translate linear addresses to physical addresses - see SMSW LMSW
Back to Intel Instruction Set page.