<
processor> A
microprocessor developed by
Intel circa
1982. The
80186 was an improvement on the
Intel 8086 and
Intel 8088. As with the 8086, it had a 16-bit {external
bus} and was also available as the
Intel 80188, with an
8-bit external
data bus. The initial
clock rate of the
80186 and 80188 was 6 MHz. They were not used in many
computers, but one notable exception was the
Mindset, a very
advanced computer for the time. They were used as {embedded
processors}.
One major function of the
80186/80188 series was to reduce the
number of chips required.
"To satisfy this market, we defined a processor with a
significant performance increase over the 8086 that also
included such common peripheral functions as
software-controlled wait state and chip select logic, three
timers, priority interrupt controller, and two channels of DMA
(direct memory access). This processor, the
80186, could
replace up to 22 separate VLSI (very large scale integration)
and TTL (transistor-transistor logic) packages and sell for
less than the cost of the parts it replaced."
-- Paul Wells of
Intel Corporation writing in Byte (reference
below)
New instructions were also introduced as follows:
ENTER Make stcak frame for procedure parameters
LEAVE High-level procedure exit
PUSHA Push all general registers
POPA Pop all general registers
BOUND Check array index against bounds
IMUL Signed (integer) multiply
INS Input from port to string
OUTS Output string to port
[
"The Evolution of the iAPX 286", Bob Greene, Intel
Corporation, PC Tech Journal, December 1984, page 134].
[
"The 80286 Microprocessor", Paul Wells, Intel Corporation,
Byte, November 1984, p. 231].
(1999-05-10)