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The microcode and hardware in the 8086 processor that perform string operations

Accepted submission by owl at 2023-04-04 17:18:32
Hardware

owl [soylentnews.org] writes:

https://www.righto.com/2023/04/8086-microcode-string-operations.html [righto.com]

Intel introduced the 8086 microprocessor in 1978. This processor ended up being hugely influential, setting the path for the x86 architecture that is extensively used today. One interesting feature of the 8086 was instructions that can efficiently operate on blocks of memory up to 64K bytes long. These instructions rapidly copy, compare, or scan data and are known as "string" instructions.

In this blog post, I explain string operations in the 8086, analyze the microcode that it used, and discuss the hardware circuitry that helped it out.

Original Submission