- In 1979, Intel introduced the 8088 microprocessor, a variant of the 16-bit 8086 processor. IBM’s decision to use the 8088 processor in the IBM PC (1981) was a critical point in computer history, leading to the success of the x86 architecture. The designers of the IBM PC selected the 8088 for multiple reasons, but a key factor was that the 8088 processor’s 8-bit bus was similar to the bus of the 8085 processor.1 The designers were familiar with the 8085 since they had selected it for the IBM System/23 Datamaster, a now-forgotten desktop computer, making the more-powerful 8088 processor an easy choice for the IBM PC.
- How to find and observe M31 (TOTS#1) (eyesonthesky.com)
Messier 31 is the closest spiral galaxy to our own Milky Way galaxy. It is over 2 million light years away, so the photons reaching your eye in a telescope tonight left that galaxy some 2+ million years ago, just before the time of homo erectus. The Andromeda galaxy is on a collision course with our own, and the two will merge in about 4 billion years.