The purple ceramic C8086 variant
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Produced | From 1978 to 1990s |
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Common manufacturer(s) |
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Max. CPU clock rate | 5 MHz to 10 MHz |
Min. feature size | 3 µm |
Instruction set | x86-16 |
Predecessor | (Intel 8080) |
Successor | 80186 and 80286 (both of which were introduced in early 1982) |
Co-processor | Intel 8087 |
Package(s) |
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Variant | 8088 |
Intel 8086 registers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The 8086 (also called iAPX 86 ) is a 16-bit microprocessor chip designed by Intel between early 1976 and mid-1978, when it was released. The Intel 8088, released in 1979, is a slightly modified chip with an external 8-bit data bus (allowing the use of cheaper and fewer supporting ICs), and is notable as the processor used in the original IBM PC design, including the widespread version called IBM PC XT.
The 8086 gave rise to the x86 architecture, which eventually became Intel's most successful line of processors.
In 1972, Intel launched the 8008, the first 8-bit microprocessor. It implemented an instruction set designed by Datapoint corporation with programmable CRT terminals in mind, which also proved to be fairly general-purpose. The device needed several additional ICs to produce a functional computer, in part due to it being packaged in a small 18-pin "memory package", which ruled out the use of a separate address bus (Intel was primarily a DRAM manufacturer at the time).
Two years later, Intel launched the 8080, employing the new 40-pin DIL packages originally developed for calculator ICs to enable a separate address bus. It has an extended instruction set that is source-compatible (not binary compatible) with the 8008 and also includes some 16-bit instructions to make programming easier. The 8080 device, often described as "the first truly useful microprocessor", was eventually replaced by the depletion-load-based 8085 (1977), which sufficed with a single +5 V power supply instead of the three different operating voltages of earlier chips. Other well known 8-bit microprocessors that emerged during these years are Motorola 6800 (1974), General Instrument PIC16X (1975), MOS Technology 6502 (1975), Zilog Z80 (1976), and Motorola 6809 (1978).