ITNews

Believe it or not, the Intel x86 microprocessor architecture is celebrating its 30th birthday. The Computerworld posting Happy birthday, x86! An industry standard turns 30

Thirty years ago, on June 8, 1978, Intel Corp. introduced its first 16-bit microprocessor, the 8086, with a splashy ad heralding “the dawn of a new era.” Overblown? Sure, but also prophetic. While the 8086 was slow to take off, its underlying architecture — later referred to as x86 — would become one of technology’s most impressive success stories

“X86″ refers to the set of machine language instructions that certain microprocessors from Intel and a few other companies execute. It essentially defines the vocabulary and usage rules for the chip. X86 processors — from the 8086 through the 80186, 80286, 80386, 80486 and various Pentium models, right down to today’s multicore chips and processors for mobile applications — have over time incorporated a growing x86 instruction set, but each has offered backward compatibility with earlier members of the family.

This grey beard programmed Intel’s first microprocessor product, the 4-bit wonder 4004, then the 8-bit wonder the 8008, and then the 16-bit wonder 8086. I held off buying a PC until the 32-bit 80386 hit the market, because of the kludgy 8086 memory management scheme.

Read this article for details about how the x86 architecture became king of the silicon heap.

…John

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer posting Microsoft execs saw problems with early Vista paints a sleazy picture of Microsoft, Intel, and the release of Vista.

Microsoft and PC makers used “Windows Vista Capable” stickers in an attempt to maintain sales of Windows XP machines during the 2006 holiday shopping season, after Windows Vista’s retail release was delayed to early 2007. The internal e-mails reveal an extensive debate inside Microsoft over the hardware specifications needed to qualify.

One message points to chip maker Intel Corp., a key Microsoft partner, to explain the decision to lower the requirements a piece of hardware needed to qualify for the “Windows Vista Capable” designation.

“In the end, we lowered the requirement to help Intel make their quarterly earnings so they could continue to sell motherboards with the 915 graphics embedded,” Microsoft executive John Kalkman wrote in the message, referring to a class of Intel graphics technology that doesn’t work with Windows Vista’s most-advanced graphics technology, known as Aero Glass.

In another message, Microsoft executive Mike Nash wrote that he “personally got burned by the Intel 915 chipset issue.”

Looks to me like conspiring to “get the numbers,” and pumping and dumping an uncooked product onto unsuspecting wretches, was far more important than getting it right. The price for such unscrupulous actions may be a totally failed product and increased difficulties launching future products.

Someday, hopefully soon, the computer buying public is going to feel they have been had again and again by Microsoft and friends, and register their anger by choosing other products.

…John