Intel 80186


Intel 80186

(processor)A microprocessor developed by Intel circa1982. The 80186 was an improvement on the Intel 8086 andIntel 8088. As with the 8086, it had a 16-bit external bus and was also available as the Intel 80188, with an8-bit external data bus. The initial clock rate of the80186 and 80188 was 6 MHz. They were not used in manycomputers, but one notable exception was the Mindset, a veryadvanced computer for the time. They were used as embedded processors.

One major function of the 80186/80188 series was to reduce thenumber of chips required.

"To satisfy this market, we defined a processor with asignificant performance increase over the 8086 that alsoincluded such common peripheral functions assoftware-controlled wait state and chip select logic, threetimers, priority interrupt controller, and two channels of DMA(direct memory access). This processor, the 80186, couldreplace up to 22 separate VLSI (very large scale integration)and TTL (transistor-transistor logic) packages and sell forless than the cost of the parts it replaced."

-- Paul Wells of Intel Corporation writing in Byte (referencebelow)

New instructions were also introduced as follows:

ENTER Make stcak frame for procedure parametersLEAVE High-level procedure exitPUSHA Push all general registersPOPA Pop all general registersBOUND Check array index against boundsIMUL Signed (integer) multiplyINS Input from port to stringOUTS Output string to port

["The Evolution of the iAPX 286", Bob Greene, IntelCorporation, PC Tech Journal, December 1984, page 134].

["The 80286 Microprocessor", Paul Wells, Intel Corporation,Byte, November 1984, p. 231].