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These technologies might not attract the fervid fandom that Apple gear gets, but they all managed to find their spot and become popular despite being as dull as ditchwater
Success in the tech world seems, at first sight, to go hand-in-hand with exciting breakthroughs or cool gadgets — the iPhones and the Linuxes of the world. But what about those technologies that seemed dull as ditchwater when they first came out, but ended up as winners? ZDNet UK takes a look at some of the technologies that might not have seemed especially exciting to begin with, but that stayed the course.
The x86 instruction set
The x86 instruction set, launched in 1978, was developed for Intel's 16-bit 8086 chip (shown above). It was originally designed for embedded systems and the feeble single-user computers of the day. Its arrival was in part a response to the success of Zilog's Z80 computer.
From such humble beginnings the x86 instruction set has more or less taken over the PC market, including the previously PowerPC-oriented Mac family, and has even replaced RISC processors in many servers and workstations. It has been implemented by Intel competitors including Cyrix, AMD, Via and others, and operating systems including Mac OS X, Windows, DOS, Linux, BSD and Solaris run on it.
Among those who have tried to displace x86 include Intel itself, with chips such as the 8800, the 960, the 860 and the Itanium architecture. But continuous improvements to x86, including changes to the microarchitecture, circuitry and manufacturing processes, have made it hard to dislodge. Interestingly, x86 is rarely seen in the embedded products it was designed for.
Caption by: Administrator
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