killing the x86 (was: Can anyone explain this to me ?)

Cameron Kaiser wrote: Actually, the reason that the 8086 was created in the first place is that the iAPX432 project was getting further and further behind schedule. So saying that the "micro mainframe" was intended to kill the x86 is true in a sense, but a bit odd. The really big decision point for Intel was if they should continue to evolve the 486 or go with the 860 instead. The 960 people wished it were a three way race, but it wasn't and they saw their chip positoned as "intelligent I/O" while the 860 got Unix ported to it. Then the top level decided that the future was with x86 and the 860 became a "graphics coprocessor". It became obvious to the customers that the yet unreleased next version of the 860 would be the last we would ever get and the Unix port (which highlighted the processor's huge problem with switching between tasks) vanished. And yes, the IA64 showed how quickly the lesson of the 860 was forgotten. -- Jecel