5 Nov
1998
5 Nov
'98
11:07 a.m.
On Thu, 5 Nov 1998, Roger Merchberger wrote:
Yes, to say that the 8088 and 8086 were the same is
incorrect, but they
_basically_ had the same core and everything... it was just the data bus
was 8 bit on the 8088 and 16-bit on the 8086. They were fully compatible
program-wise, just that the 8086 was faster as it could push 2x data over
the 8088.
Comparing the 80386 and the Pentium wouldn't be fair, tho. Comparing the
80386SX (with the 16-bit data bus) and the 80386DX (with the 32-bit data
bus) would be a lot better comparison... as again, the chips were fully
compatible, but the DX's were faster due to the larger data bus.
Just the way I seem to remember it...
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.
- don