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The Intel 8086 was designed by a team of four engineers and 12 layout people led by Stephen P. Morse. Reports indicate that the impetus behind this project was to provide a practical, timely alternative to upcoming 16-bit Motorola and Zilog CPU designs. The fabled 8086 processor was only meant as a stopgap, as Intel had bitten off a bit more than it could chew with the iAPX 432 project, begun a year prior. As a side note, the 432 finally shipped in 1981 and was deemed too expensive, too complex, and fatally too slow when it arrived.
The 8086, the founding CPU in the x86 lineage, was marketed as Intel’s first 16-bit processor. It benefited from a degree of backwards compatibility with prior Intel 8-bit designs like the 8008, 8080, and 8085. Notable advancements over its predecessors included microcode for multiply and divide assembly language instructions.
Looking closer at the hardware tech specs, the Intel 8086 had around 20,000 transistors (29,277 including ROM and PLA) and was manufactured using Intel’s HMOS (High performance MOS) manufacturing process, originally developed for manufacturing fast static RAM products. The resulting 40-pin chip measured 33mm², and the minimum feature size was 3.2μm. Over its lifetime, it was released in clock speeds ranging from 5 to 10 MHz.
While the Intel 8086 founded the x86 architecture , the subsequent 8088 design (1979) would become the beating heart of the first IBM PC (1981) and that particular storied lineage.
Intel released its first Pentium chip on this day 33 years ago, came packing 3.1 million transistors
Linux devs start removing support for 37-year-old Intel 486 CPU
Key considerations
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/intel-introduced-the-first-processor-in-the-x86-series-and-the-first-8086-microprocessor-on-this-day-in-1978-cpu-was-designed-as-a-temporary-substitute-for-the-delayed-iapx-432-project#main
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