The Intel 8087 chip, launched in 1980, significantly improved floating-point calculations in computers, particularly in the IBM PC. This article explores its microcode and circuitry, detailing how it performs addition and subtraction of floating-point numbers. It highlights the chip's architecture, including its 80-bit format and internal registers, and explains the complexities involved in aligning binary points and normalizing results after operations.
Key facts
- The Intel 8087 was introduced in 1980 to enhance floating-point operations.
- It improved addition speed by nearly 100 times compared to the 8086 processor.
- The chip uses an 80-bit format for internal number representation.
- The 8087 contains 1648 micro-instructions for controlling operations.
- Floating-point numbers are represented as sign × significand × 2 exponent.
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