8086 was put together in just a few weeks, once it was clear Intel needed a "stop-gap" ISA, as their other design (432) was taking too many years to put togethe

8086 was put together in just a few weeks, once it was clear Intel needed a "stop-gap" ISA, as their other design (432) was taking too many years to put together. And it shows. The operations they blew 1-byte instructions on is astounding (e.g., ASCII Adjust after Addition...)