Re: Is this true?

[Charles Richmond <richmond@ev1.net>]

Michael Black wrote:
> 
>      [snip...]     [sip...]    [sinp...]
> 
> The original "IBM PC" used an 8088.  Everyone in the line since then
> has been the same basic CPU, but with added instructions and sometimes
> more hardware.  After a certain point, the real change is speed; an
> 80486 is pretty much an 80386 with a built in math coprocessor.  Some
> of the peripheral hardware has changed; if you want to run a program
> from about twenty years ago that used a Hercules monochrome display,
> there might be problems running that software on a present day computer's
> video system, but the CPU from today could still run the instructions
> in the software, as if the CPU was still that original 8088.
> 
Please remember:

"Intel put the 'backward' in 'backward compatible'..." As
pointed out above, this means that all the x86 chips subsequent
to the 8088 are carrying a huge load of garbage along with
them. IMHO.

-- 
+-------------------------------------------------------------+
|     Charles and Francis Richmond     <richmond@plano.net>   |
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