Classic != IBM AT

From: Doug Yowza <yowza_at_yowza.com>
Date: Thu Nov 5 19:23:53 1998

On Thu, 5 Nov 1998, Don Maslin wrote:

> Do I not recall correctly that the 8088 was in fact half of a two chip
> set and that the 8086 was 'self contained', and that IBM elected to not use
> the other half.

The 8088 and 8086 really are nearly identical except that the 8088
multiplexes an 8-bit data bus. I can't imagine what you're thinking of,
except perhaps for the optional 8087 FPU.

Intel did try to confuse things later on, though. For example, the SX/DX
designation of the 386 originally meant single-wide and double-wide data
bus, but then Intel marketing decided to create the 486SX, which was just
a normal 486 with the FPU crippled.

-- Doug
Received on Thu Nov 05 1998 - 19:23:53 GMT