ADVANCED PROCESSORS—80286 TO PENTIUM 14-33
interrupts but that will be discussed separately). There are a few issues in this type of
control transfer.
y We can go to a code segment of lower privilege level, but on returning, it causes
privilege level violations, so in effect this type of access is not possible.
y Going to code segments of higher privilege level is not permitted, but there is an
indirect way of doing this and that is using ‘gates’.
Before proceeding further, a clarification on ‘conforming’ and ‘non-conforming’ code
segments needs to be given.
Conforming Code Segment A conforming code segment is one that does not have
a privilege level of its own. It can be called by programs at any privilege level and then,
it acquires the ...