x87: The Floppy Disk of CPU Instruction Sets

(Evan Miller)

After spending the most recent week of my life squeezing the last of my long doubles into regular doubles – this is a bit like fitting a jar of pickles into a money-clip – I write to pay tribute to x87, the 80-bit-capable ISA that’s been hanging around Intel’s neck for some forty years now, and that will soon go the way of the floppy disk.