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Intel 8088
The first chip used in PCs was Intel's 8088. This was not, at the time it was chosen,
the best available CPU, in fact Intel's own 8086 was more powerful and had been released
earlier. The 8088 was chosen for reasons of economics: its 8-bit data bus required less
costly motherboards than the 16-bit 8086. Also, at the time that the original PC was
designed, most of the interface chips available were intended for use in 8-bit designs.
It's ironic, isn't it, that Intel's first production chip was in a way, the
"8086SX"? :^) It originally shipped at 4.77 MHz and a "turbo" version
was later produced that ran at 8 MHz (Woo.. :^) )
This original chip used what would be considered today to be archaic technology. The
8088 offers performance less than one-thousandth that of a modern processor, showing just
how far we have come in 15 years.
 Note: The NEC V20 is an
8088-compatible but actually delivers slightly better performance due to a slightly more
efficient internal design.
Note: The original design of
this chip was in NMOS, with newer ones in CMOS (80C88) for lower power consumption.
Look here for an explanation of the categories in the processor
summary table below, including links to more detailed explanations.
General
Information |
Manufacturer |
Intel |
Family Name |
8088 |
Code name |
-- |
Processor Generation |
First |
Motherboard
Generation |
First |
Version |
8088 |
8088-8 |
Introduced |
June 1979 |
!? |
Variants and Licensed
Equivalents |
80C88, AMD 8088, NEC V20 |
Speed
Specifications |
Memory Bus Speed
(MHz) |
4.77 |
8 |
Processor Clock
Multiplier |
1.0 |
Processor Speed (MHz) |
4.77 |
8 |
"P" Rating |
-- |
Benchmarks |
iCOMP Rating |
-- |
iCOMP 2.0 Rating |
-- |
Norton SI |
1.0 |
1.7 |
Norton SI32 |
-- |
CPUmark32 |
-- |
Physical
Characteristics |
Process Technology |
NMOS, CMOS |
Circuit Size
(microns) |
3.0 |
Die Size (mm^2) |
33 |
Transistors
(millions) |
0.029 |
Voltage,
Power and Cooling |
External or I/O
Voltage (V) |
5 |
Internal or Core
Voltage (V) |
5 |
Power Management |
None |
Cooling Requirements |
None |
Packaging |
Packaging Style |
40-Pin DIP |
Motherboard Interface |
DIP socket |
External
Architecture |
Data Bus Width (bits) |
8 |
Maximum Data Bus
Bandwidth (Mbytes/sec) |
4.5 |
7.6 |
Address Bus Width
(bits) |
20 |
Maximum Addressable
Memory |
1 MB |
Level 2 Cache Type |
None |
Level 2 Cache Size |
-- |
Level 2 Cache Bus
Speed |
-- |
Multiprocessing |
No |
Internal
Architecture |
Instruction Set |
8088 |
MMX Support |
No |
Processor Modes |
Real |
x86 Execution Method |
Native |
Internal
Components |
Register Size (bits) |
16 |
Pipeline Depth
(stages) |
1 |
Level 1 Cache Size |
None |
Level 1 Cache Mapping |
-- |
Level 1 Cache Write
Policy |
-- |
Integer Units |
1 |
Floating Point Unit /
Math Coprocessor |
Optional 8087 Coprocessor |
Instruction Decoders |
1 |
Branch Prediction
Buffer Size / Accuracy |
None |
Write Buffers |
None |
Performance Enhancing
Features |
None |
 Next: Intel
8086
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