Gregory's ServerBecause of the 386, Compaq gained control of the PC architecture while IBM ended up eventually exiting the PC market. The 386 led to Intel's first billion-dollar quarter in 1990 and the enduring success of the x86 architecture. 8/9
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6 comments
 @kenshirriff Amazing that intel only discontinued the 386 in 2007 and that it lives on in the embedded market.  @kenshirriff i'd like to argue that IBM still did very well in the PC market, particularly with the Thinkpad series. technically they didn't exit the PC market until 2005. @kenshirriff it would be interesting to learn more details about how the Motorola chips, which you say were more technically advanced, did not win out over Intel. Was it pricing, good luck for Intel, bad luck for Motorola, differences in strategy?  @wtfrank Much of Intel's success was due to "Operation Crush", where Intel had a huge marketing campaign to get design wins over Motorola. The "luck" of having the 8088 selected for the IBM PC was also huge. @kenshirriff thanks, I read a bit about that Operation Crush, it seems like a smart organisational & management strategy that managed to motivate the entire organisation to beat Motorola. |
Credits: thanks to https://twitter.com/Siliconinsid for the die images. The wall-sized 386 photo is from Intel's 1985 annual report. Thanks to Pat Gelsinger who sent me copies of his 1985 papers on the 386. 9/9