Tell me more ×
Super User is a question and answer site for computer enthusiasts and power users. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 2 down vote favorite

The 8088 came out after the 8086. What advantages did it have over the 8086, if any?

share|improve this question
um, what? Can you please add links as to what the 8088 and the 8086 are? – studiohack♦ Apr 14 '11 at 1:01
1  
(The 8088 and 8086 are Intel Processors for XT computers.) – Randolf Richardson Apr 14 '11 at 1:09
Homework question? – techie007 Apr 14 '11 at 1:22
1  
Why was this question closed? – Luke101 Apr 14 '11 at 4:32
I think that it's pretty obvious what the 8088 and 8086 are in terms of computers. – OSX NINJA Apr 14 '11 at 5:26

closed as not a real question by random♦ Apr 14 '11 at 1:04

It's difficult to tell what is being asked here. This question is ambiguous, vague, incomplete, overly broad, or rhetorical and cannot be reasonably answered in its current form. For help clarifying this question so that it can be reopened, see the FAQ.

2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

It was cheaper and allowed for overall cheaper system. Wikipedia has an exhausive article about the 8088:

The 8088 was targeted at economical systems by allowing the use of an 8-bit data path and 8-bit support and peripheral chips; complex circuit boards were still fairly cumbersome and expensive when it was released. The prefetch queue of the 8088 was shortened to four bytes, from the 8086's six bytes, and the prefetch algorithm was slightly modified to adapt to the narrower bus.

In comparison, the 8086 has a 16-Bit data bus, which means that the accompanying system chips needed to be 16 Bits, which made them more complex and expensive.

share|improve this answer
up vote 2 down vote

There were some minor differences with the bus size and whatnot that made the 8088 less expensive to engineer interfaces for (e.g., for XT motherboards). The full details are explained here on these two pages:

  Intel 8086
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_8086

  Intel 8088
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_8088

I hope those two pages will answer your question completely.

share|improve this answer

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.