Architecture
The processor was a significant evolution in the x86 architecture, and extended a long line of processors that stretched back to the Intel 8008. The predecessor of the 80386 was the Intel 80286, a 16-bit processor with a segment-based memory management and protection system. The 80386 added a 32-bit architecture and a paging translation unit, which made it much easier to implement operating systems that used virtual memory. It also had support for hardware debugging.
The 80386 featured three operating modes: real mode, protected mode and virtual mode. The protected mode which debuted in the 286 was extended to allow the 386 to address up to 4 GB of memory. The all new virtual 8086 mode (or VM86) made it possible to run one or more real mode programs in a protected environment, although some programs were not compatible.
The 32-bit flat memory model of the 386 would arguably be the most important feature change for the x86 processor family until AMD released x86-64 in 2003.
Chief architect in the development of the 80386 was John H. Crawford. He was responsible for extending the 80286 architecture and instruction set to 32-bit, and then led the microprogram development for the 80386 chip.
The 80486 and P5 Pentium line of processors were descendants of the 80386 design.
Read more about this topic: Intel 80386
Famous quotes containing the word architecture:
“Defaced ruins of architecture and statuary, like the wrinkles of decrepitude of a once beautiful woman, only make one regret that one did not see them when they were enchanting.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“I don’t think of form as a kind of architecture. The architecture is the result of the forming. It is the kinesthetic and visual sense of position and wholeness that puts the thing into the realm of art.”
—Roy Lichtenstein (b. 1923)
“No architecture is so haughty as that which is simple.”
—John Ruskin (1819–1900)