Intel 8086
16-bit central processing unit
The Intel 8086 (also as iAPX 86) is a 16-bit, complex instruction set microprocessor designed by Intel, and first released in June 1978. 8086 gave rise to x86, the instruction set architecture (ISA) of central processing units (CPUs) that eventually became Intel's most successful line of products, and a ubiquitous presence in modern desktop computers.
Its successor, the Intel 8088, was released in 1979, as a slightly modified chip with an external 8-bit data bus, designed for use with cheaper and fewer supporting ICs.
The x86 served as the foundation to both x86-64 and IA-64, with the former being the underlying ISA for modern CPUs such as the Intel Core and AMD Ryzen. An anniversary processor, the Core i7-8086K, is released on June 5, 2018, celebrating the 40th anniversary of 8086's release.
History
Background
In 1972, Intel launched the 8008, Intel's 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 had an extended instruction set that is source-compatible (not binary compatible) with the 8008 and also included some 16-bit instructions to make programming easier.
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