It was thus said that the Great ben once stated:
> On 5/20/2016 2:58
>
> >
> >[4] Say, a C compiler an 8088. How big is a pointer? How big of an
> > object can you point to? How much code is involved with "p++"?
>
> How come INTEL thought that 64 KB segments ample? I guess they only used
> FLOATING point in the large time shared machines.
The industry at the time was wanting larger CPUs than 8 bit. Intel had an
existing 8-bit design, the 8080 and to fill demand, Intel had a few choices.
It could break with any form of compatibility (object or source) and start
over with a clean slate [1]. Or they could keep some form of compatibility
and Intel went with (more or less) source compatibility. You could
mechanically translate 8080 code into 8086 code with a high assurance it
would work, and thus customers of Intel could leverate the existing 8080
(and Z80) source base.
And that's how you end up with a bizare segmented 16-bit architecture.
-spc
[1] Motorola took this approach when making the 68000. It's nothing at
all like the 6800.
