barrel shifter circuit of
- The Intel 386 processor (1985) was a large step from the 286 processor, moving x86 to a 32-bit architecture. The 386 also dramatically improved the performance of shift and rotate operations by adding a “barrel shifter”, a circuit that can shift by multiple bits in one step. The die photo below shows the 386’s barrel shifter, highlighted in the lower left and taking up a substantial part of the die.
- Messier 109 (Wikipedia)
Messier 109 (also known as NGC 3992 or the Vacuum Cleaner Galaxy) is a barred spiral galaxy exhibiting a weak inner ring structure around the central bar approximately 67.2 ± 23 million light-years away in the northern constellation Ursa Major. M109 can be seen south-east of the star Phecda (γ UMa, Gamma Ursa Majoris).