Forty years ago, Intel released the 8086 processor, introducing the x86 architecture that underlies every PC—Windows, Mac, or Linux—produced today.

Intel's 8086 designers used 64-kbyte segments to extend addressing to 1 Mbyte. The 80386 also uses segmentation; however, because the general-purpose and index/pointer registers are now 32 bits, the ...

Forty-two years ago today, Intel launched the original 8086 microprocessor -- the grandfather of every x86 CPU ever built, including the ones we use now.