Intel 80186

The Intel 80186 and Intel 80188 are advancements of the 8086 - and 8088 - Intel CPUs from 1982, the differences between the two CPUs are analogous to the differences 8086-8088: ., The 80186 has a 16-bit external data bus, the 80188 only an eight- bit wide. Both were - in contrast to the other processors of the x86 series - rarely used in personal computers because Intel had functions integrated into the chip, which are more typical of a microcontroller and offered no advantage in the construction of an IBM - compatible PCs.

Construction

In addition to a CPU core of the real part of the mode corresponding to 80286, provided the 8018x

• Clock generator
• Three timer / counters
• DMA controller with two channels
• Interrupt control
• Programmable chip select generation
• Refresh generator for DRAM

In principle, all components of a typical PC system are so united on one chip.

Computer with 80186

Nevertheless, there were manufacturers, PCs using these CPUs have realized: The published in 1984 Siemens PC -D, the first DOS PC from Siemens, was shipped with MS- DOS in version 2.11. It originated with the omission of an external memory management (MMU ) from the Sinix workstation Siemens PC -X. All models had a clocked at 8 MHz 80186 CPU. Other desktop computer with 80186 CPU were:

• MAD Computer (USA)
• MITAC Paragon (USA)
• Tandy 2000 ( USA)
• HP 200LX (USA)
• YES Philips (Netherlands)
• Compis (Sweden)
• RM Nimbus (England)
• Apricot Portable ( UK)
• Unisys ICON (Canada)
• Goupil G4
• Triumph-Adler Alphatronic P50/P60 ( Germany )

Compis, Nimbus and ICON were there special developments for use in schools.

Area of ​​application

The main application of 80186/88-Prozessors was and is the embedded market, for both CPUs due to the integration of a timer and an interrupt controller actually are predestined. Programs for the 80186/88 can readily with the usual MS- DOS development tools, such as Borland, be programmed; an advantage that, among other things one of the reasons why 80186/88-kompatible processors are so popular and are used even to this day. For example, the 80186 based on the Am186, AMD still available (as of May 2009).

Nevertheless, until today 80186 -compatible embedded modules are offered, as they are much more energy efficient due to the lower complexity of the CPU core than comparable modules, for example based on the Pentium. There are even 80186 IP cores, which enable the logical description of a load 80186 on a FPGA chip and add the furthermore required for the intended use external functions. And so to work today in many household appliances, industrial control, laboratory and measuring instruments and even certain Airbus aircraft 80186/88-kompatible processors.