The 8086/8088 look pretty well-optimized in many ways: the design of the instruction set, the architecture, the microcode, and the silicon layout. Studying it c

The 8086/8088 look pretty well-optimized in many ways: the design of the instruction set, the architecture, the microcode, and the silicon layout. Studying it closely, I've seen multiple things that are more clever than I expected, and haven't seen anything that makes me shake my head in dismay.