A die photo of the 8086 microprocessor. The metal layer is visible in this photo, a complex arrangement on the surface of the chip. The pads for the chip's 40 pins are arranged around the outside. The main functional blocks are labeled, as well as the pins that affect interrupts.

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Ken Shirriff (kenshirriff@oldbytes.space)'s status on Wednesday, 22-Feb-2023 16:10:28 JST Ken Shirriff

The iconic Intel 8086 processor (1978) set the path for modern computers. Like most CPUs, it supports interrupts, a mechanism to interrupt the regular flow of processing. I've been reverse-engineering it from the silicon die, and I can explain how its interrupt circuitry works.

In conversation Wednesday, 22-Feb-2023 16:10:28 JST from oldbytes.space permalink