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Notes on the Pentium's microcode circuitry

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180 points leotravis10 | 1 comments | 31 Mar 25 18:35 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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kens ◴[31 Mar 25 18:51 UTC] No.43538380[source]▶
Author here for your Pentium questions :-)
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vitalmixofntrnt ◴[31 Mar 25 19:44 UTC] No.43539018[source]▶
Can I add my own instruction set extensions to the original x86 isa as implemented by the 8086 without permission from Intel and / or AMD as long as I'm not copying any x86 instruction set extensions?
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1. userbinator ◴[01 Apr 25 00:14 UTC] No.43541455[source]▶
Any patents on the 8086 have long expired, and so have the ones from the last century. As Ken says, the microcode is copyrighted but you don't need to use that to make a compatible version.