It’s impossible to look at the x86 family of microprocessors without wondering if, after three decades of dominance, the architecture might be running out of steam. Intel, naturally, says the x86 still has legs, while hastening to add that its battles with competing architectures are far from over. Although people often refer to the x86 instruction set as though it were some kind of immutable specification, both the instruction set itself and the architecture that implements it have gone through tremendous evolution over the years.
What’s Next for the x86?
June 5, 2008