13 Facts About Intel 80386

Intel 386, originally released as 80386 and later renamed i386, is a 32-bit microprocessor introduced in 1985.

The Intel 80386 was introduced as pre-production samples for software development workstations in October 1985.

Mainboards for Intel 80386-based computer systems were cumbersome and expensive at first, but manufacturing was justified upon the Intel 80386's mainstream adoption.

The first personal computer to make use of the Intel 80386 was designed and manufactured by Compaq and marked the first time a fundamental component in the IBM PC compatible de facto standard was updated by a company other than IBM.

In May 2006, Intel 80386 announced that i386 production would stop at the end of September 2007.

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The Intel 80386 added a three-stage instruction pipeline which it brings up to total of 6-stage instruction pipeline, extended the architecture from 16-bits to 32-bits, and added an on-chip memory management unit.

Intel 80386 featured three operating modes: real mode, protected mode and virtual mode.

Intel 80386 was responsible for extending the 80286 architecture and instruction set to 32-bit, and then led the microprogram development for the 80386 chip.

In 1988, Intel introduced the 80386SX, most often referred to as the 386SX, a cut-down version of the 80386 with a 16-bit data bus, mainly intended for lower-cost PCs aimed at the home, educational, and small-business markets, while the 386DX remained the high-end variant used in workstations, servers, and other demanding tasks.

However, Intel 80386 subsequently used the "DX" suffix to refer to the floating-point capability of the i486DX.

IBM was offered use of the Intel 80386, but had manufacturing rights for the earlier 80286.

Early in production, Intel 80386 discovered a marginal circuit that could cause a system to return incorrect results from 32-bit multiply operations.

Intel 80386 later offered a modified version of its 486DX in i386 packaging, branded as the Intel 80386 RapidCAD.