Earl Whetstone won the IBM PC account for Intel and became the salesman all others would be benchmarked against.
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Forty-five years ago, the @IBM PC, powered by the Intel 8088 processor, helped bring personal computing to the masses—and helped establish x86 as a foundation for decades of innovation.Today, from the original PC era to AI-enabled computing, Intel continues building on that… pic.twitter.com/yu13Iqn0Yw August 14, 2026
It is interesting to read about why sales engineer Earl Whetstone managed to return to Intel with a signed and sealed deal for supplying the Intel 8088 (June 1979), while the superior 8086 (June 1978) was overlooked. In a nutshell, it is the economics that won it for the Intel 8088.
Intel’s influential Intel 8086 delivered the first x86 architecture chip and had a 16-bit internal architecture , with a matching 16-bit external data bus. Meanwhile, the 8088, introduced a year later, took that design and sliced the external data bus width in half, to 8-bit. This would make the newer 8088 slower, probably just into double digits, all else being equal. However, the 8088 was cheaper and also allowed IBM to pick up common 1980s-era components to configure the Model 5150, which also boosted system affordability.
Meanwhile, software written for the 8086, an ecosystem developed in the few years between the introduction of the first x86 architecture chip, would be central to IBM’s plans for the Model 5150 being realized. By 1981, there were versions of DOS for x86 ready, and the creators of key third-party software like WordPerfect, Lotus 1-2-3, dBase, and a host of other early suites and tools were developing for x86. This helped the IBM PC Model 5150 become a hit product out of the gate.
(Image credit: Intel ) (Image credit: Intel ) (Image credit: Intel ) Image 1 of 3 View Original
There have been over a dozen x86 processor manufacturers Commenting on this important date for Intel, IBM, and the birth of the PC industry as we know it, analyst Patrick Moorhead tweeted about the diverse canon of x86 processor manufacturers over the years. In addition to Intel and AMD, most computer history buffs will be familiar with Cyrix x86 , and perhaps even efforts from IBM, NEC, and NexGen. However, Moorhead reminds us that NEC also made x86 chips, as have Texas Instruments, IDT ( Centaur Technology), Rise Technology, SGS-Thomson, and Transmeta.
Intel introduced ‘the first processor in the x86 series and the first 8086 microprocessor’ on this day in 1978
Intel unveiled its iconic Core 2 Duo family 20 years ago
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Reference reading
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/SPONSORED_LINK_URL
- https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/cpus/the-pc-age-began-45-years-ago-with-the-breakthrough-intel-8088-processor-8-bit-bus-fueled-45-years-of-x86-dominance#main
- https://www.tomshardware.com/membership
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Informational only. No financial advice. Do your own research.