You’d think that the 8086 microprocessor, a 40-year-old chip with a mere 29,000 transistors on board that kicked off the 16-bit PC revolution, would have no more tales left to tell. But as [Ken ...

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Thirty years ago, on June 8, 1978, Intel Corp. introduced its first 16-bit microprocessor, the 8086, with a splashy ad heralding “the dawn of a new era.” Overblown? Sure, but also prophetic. While the ...

An operational state in an Intel CPU that allows it to perform as multiple 8086/8088 CPUs, which was the architecture of the first x86 chip. Virtual 8086 Mode divides the computer into multiple ...

Cache prefetching is what allows processors to have data and/or instructions ready for use in a fast local cache rather than having to wait for a fetch request to trickle through to system RAM and ...

Adrian has been a tech enthusiast since the 90s with a particular passion for gaming that developed thanks to his first gaming outings on Pong, Zork and Space Invaders. In the years that followed he ...

In the 45 years since Intel released the world’s first commercial single-chip CPU, Intel has consistently raised the bar on microprocessor architecture, giving birth to the entire PC industry and ...