Mainstream GCC has never supported 16-bit code on x86, only 32-bit However, there is (at least one) fork which adds 16-bit code support, see https://github.com

Mainstream GCC has never supported 16-bit code on x86, only 32-bit However, there is (at least one) fork which adds 16-bit code support, see https://github.com/tkchia/gcc-ia16 https://github.com/tkchia/gcc-ia16 I don't think the GCC maintainers have ever or will ever want to support 16-bit x86, because it is so limited, and adds a lot of messy corner cases, and nowadays is really only of hobbyist/retrocomputing interest. Maybe there is some 16-bit x86 embedded system still being maintained–there were military spec versions of the 8086, and possibly some weapons system, aircraft, satellite, etc, still in use contains one. But I doubt they'd have any interest in adopting a 16-bit GCC – they'd already have some proprietary compiler they'd been using for decades, switching now would add a lot of risk, very late in the life of a legacy system, for no tangible benefit