Microprocessors: New architectures increase speed, and RISC processors are moving from university laboratories into commercial products

In surveying developments in 1985, the author notes that CMOS technology now dominates the field, and architectures based on reduced-instruction-set computer (RISC) concepts are beginning to move from university laboratories into commercially available products. The existence of entire families of coprocessors-chips designed to perform special functions in close communication with the CPU-gained importance for customers selecting among a multiplicity of 32-bit options. The capabilities and potential of Intel´s 80386 are discussed, and descriptions are given of the new architectures introduced in 1985.