Tracing the roots of the 8086 instruction set to the Datapoint 2200 minicomputer

.hilite {cursor:zoom-in} a:link img.hilite, a:visited img.hilite {color: #fff;} a:hover img.hilite {color: #f66;} The Intel 8086 processor started the x86 architecture that is still extensively used today. The 8086 has some quirky characteristics: it is little-endian, has a parity flag, and uses explicit I/O instructions instead of just memory-mapped I/O. It has four 16-bit registers that can be split into 8-bit registers, but only one that can be used for memory indexing. Surprisingly, ...

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