Happy Birthday! X86 Turns 30 Years Old

javipas writes "On June 8th, 1978 Intel introduced its first 16-bit microprocessor, the 8086. Intel used then "the dawn of a new era" slogan, and they probably didn't know how certain they were. Thirty years later we've seen the evolution of PC architectures based on the x86 instruction set that has been the core of Intel, AMD or VIA processors. Legendary chips such as Intel 80386, 80486, Pentium and AMD Athlon have a great debt to that original processor, and as recently was pointed out on Slashdot, x86 evolution still leads the revolution. Happy birthday and long live x86."

Intel's anniversary too

[suso]

Intel's own 40th anniversary is coming up on July 18th. I guess the microcomputer industry is officially over the hill.

Nice self-reference double entendre Taco!

Might want to check your FPU

[Anonymous Coward]

The story is a few days early. I think you may have a rounding bug somewhere.

Re:Might want to check your FPU

[somersault]

I did wonder how they weren't sure how certain they were. Perhaps they weren't certain how certain they were but were certain how right they were. These guys should be building quantum CPUs by now with such confuddling principles of certainty.

Happy 29.9999999876547542

[Shadow Wrought]

Signed,
your great-great-great grandson,
Pentium

Happy Birthday

[marto]

.model small .stack .data
message db "Happy Birthday!", "$" .code
main proc
      mov ax,seg message
      mov ds,ax
      mov ah,09
      lea dx,message
      int 21h
      mov ax,4c00h
      int 21h
main endp
end main

Re:Might want to check your FPU

[Anonymous Coward]

Happy Birthday! X86 Turns 29.991803 Years Old.

Happy Happy Birthday

[triffid_98]

Happy birthday my Intel overlords, and a pox on whomever designed that ugly memory map.

Re:Its hard to believe ...

[Rhapsody Scarlet]

We've been using it for 100% of mine. The 80386 was still shiny and new when I was born.

See, this is one the reasons I come to Slashdot. Other discussion boards make me feel so old because I remember using my old 486DX2/66.

Re:Itanium sank

[Anonymous Coward]

Itaniums were great processors. I have a bank of surplus ones installed in my oven as a replacement heating element.

What other discussion boards?

[Futurepower(R)]

What other discussion boards?

Re:How Long?

[B3ryllium]

Hrm, I wonder what this HAL thing is ... must be a virus! I'd better remove it.

June 8th

[coren2000]

Why couldn't the poster wait for June 8th to post this story... its *MY* birthday today dang it... x86 is totally stealing my day....

Jerk.

Re:Might want to check your FPU

[everphilski]

Slashdot's got to be early on a few news articles to make up for being behind on so many.

Oh wait, did I say a few? ;)

Happy birthday!

[Nullav]

Now die, you sputtering son of a whore. :D

Re:How Long?

[meadowsoft]

I wouldn't do that, Dave...

Report to Carousel

[xPsi]

X86 Turns 30 Years Old

Happy Birthday! But do not be alarmed. That flashing red light on your palm is a natural part of our social order. On Lastday, please report to Carousel for termination at your earliest convenience. The computer is your friend. Oh, wait, you ARE the computer...

Re:Die already !

[timster]

Nonsense -- it's the LACK of a plural second-person pronoun in "proper" English that is disgusting (and inefficient). "Y'all" is the best hope we have for fixing this bug, and y'all should start using it as much as possible.

Re:Might want to check your FPU

[MiniMike]

I thought it was early so they could dup it in time for the real anniversary.

not fair, this is too Do$$y

[CDMA_Demo]

09 and 21h are MS-DOS interrupts. I bet that wasn't around when the first x86 appeared on the planet....try again mr. jedi

So?

[Bluesman]

What's so special about this?

Wake me up when it turns 32.

Happy Birthday!

[ucblockhead]

I will declare a far pointer in its honor.

Re:Might want to check your FPU

[somersault]

There's a jahookin' load more where that came from!

Although I don't think I invented confuddling (confuzzling is another good variation), and it was my sister who invented jahookin' :P Everyone should embiggen their vocabulary from time to time, though unfortunately a lot of people will just question the cromulence of any new words :/

Re:Its hard to believe ...

[Anonymous Coward]

The thing that makes this statement funny to me is that my dad lived on a farm and there was a sizeable hill between his house and the school about a mile away, and was something like a hundred feet. So when it did snow, he literally had to walk uphill both ways... in the snow :P

Re:Might want to check your FPU

[Kazymyr]

No, you may want to check your FPU, because in fact it's 29.99178607283015423929907821484 years.

Re:Intel's anniversary too

[canuck57]

Intel's own 40th anniversary is coming up on July 18th. I guess the microcomputer industry is officially over the hill.

Sure beats being under the hill.