Good Computer Programming Book

8086 < 80286 < 80386 < 80486 < Pentium < Pentium II < Pentium III < etc...

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In fact, think of each newer processor littely "wrapping" around the previous one. Not just incorporating the previous one, but building on its foundation so that only the bare minimum that needs to evolve does. If you somehow remove the 8086 core, the Pentium doesn't work anymore. It's not just compatible with it for the fun of it. It needs it to run. It needs its 16 bits registers, its addressing scheme, all of its basic functionnality.

Hmmm ok, point taken. Mind you, that kind of backwards compatability has obvious disadvantages too. It's undoubtedly hard to make an efficient processor which is heavily based on old technology. I suppose that's why PPC processors are often quoted as achieving the same relative processing power on lower clock speeds.

As it happens I have a small pet-hate for intel processors. I can't really explain why, except that when you learn to program a few different types of CPUs, you tend to develop preferences for some over others. For example, I'm a real fan of the Z80 CPU because I find it easy to program with and it has some excellent features. I also liked the 6502. I tried working with some x86 processors for a small while and I just hated everything about them, I didn't find them as easy to program as processors I'd tried before. They just seem to have horrible little quirks about them that I don't like.

One advantage of programming in C is that you're largely above all those low-level differences. You just let the compiler do all the hard work

Brian