Intel® System Debugger User Guide

ID 648476
Date 06/13/2024
Confidential
Document Table of Contents

CPU Operation Modes

When the target is suspended, you can see the CPU operating modes for a particular thread. Select the thread in the Debug view and see the mode information in the status bar at the bottom:

The list below shows available modes:

cpu_mode

  • Protected - the native operating mode of the processor.

  • Real (or Real-address) - the mode that provides the programming environment of the Intel 8086 processor with extensions.

  • Virtual86 (or Virtual-8086) - a quasi-operating mode that allows the processor execute 8086 software in a protected, multitasking environment.

  • Compatibility - the IA-32e submodule that allows most legacy protected-mode applications to run unchanged.

  • 64-Bit - the IA-32e submodule that rovides 64-bit linear addressing and support for physical address space larger than 64 GBytes.

  • VMXroot - the mode for VMX root operations for Virtual Machine Monitors (VMM)

  • VMXguest - the mode for VMX non-root operations for the guest software.

  • SMM - System Management Mode that provides an operating system or executive with a transparent mechanism for implementing power management and OEM differentiation features.

See also:

Intel(R) 64 and IA-32 Architectures Software Developer Manual Volume 3: System Programming Guide