The x86 compatible family has come a long way in 19 years: The Pentium II offers over 1000 times the raw speed of the 8086. Here are a few dates in the PC industry evolution.
1978
Intel 8086
16-bit registers, 16-bit data bus. Introduced: June 1978. 29,000
transistors, 4.77MHz <1 MIPS. Initial price: $360
1979
Intel 8088
8086 with an 8-bit data bus. Introduced: June 1979. 4.77-8MHz.
1981
IBM PC introduced with the 8088 processor.
1982
Intel 80286
16-bit registers, 16-bit data bus, protected-mode operation. Introduced:
February 1982. 134,000 transistors, 6-12MHz, 1-2 MIPS. Initial price: $360
1984
IBM PC AT introduced with the 80286 processor.
1985
Intel 80386
32-bit registers, 32-bit data bus. Introduced: October 1985. 275,000
transistors, 16-33MHz, 6-12 MIPS. Initial price: $299
1985
Microsoft Windows was introduced.
1986
Compaq Deskpro 386/16 was introduced.
1987
IBM PS/2 series was introduced with Micro Channel architecture and OS/2
operating system.
1988
Intel 80386SX
80386 with a 16-bit data bus. Introduced: June 1988. 16-33MHz.
1989
Intel 80486DX
32-bit registers, 32-bit data bus. Integrated math coprocessor. Introduced:
April 1989. 1.2 million transistors, 25-50MHz, 20-40 MIPS. Initial price: $950
1990
486DX/25 PC was introduced.
1991
Intel 486SX
(486DX with no math coprocessor) introduced: April 1991. 16-33MHz
1992
Intel 486DX2
Clock-doubled 486DX. Introduced: March 1992. 50-66MHZ
1993
Intel Pentium
32-bit registers, 64 bit data bus. Superscalar. Introduced: March 1993. 3.2
million transistors, 60-133MHz, 100-200+ MIPS. Initial price: $878
1994
Intel Pentium
P54C 3.3 volt, 90MHz Pentium
1994-1996
Pentium competitors were introduced
NexGen Nx586 introduced: September 1994
Cyrix M1 introduced: Fall 1995
AMD K5 introduced: Spring 1996
1995
Intel P6 (Pentium PRO)
32-bit registers, 64-bit data bus. Superscalar; out of order execution;
integrated L2 cache. 5.5 million transistors (exclusive of L2 cache). 133-200MHz. Cache
sizes from 256k or 512k.
1996
Intel Overdrive Processor
486 to Pentium 83MHz, Pentium 75 to Pentium 166, Pentium 100 to Pentium
200MMX.
1996
Intel Pentium with MMX technology
57 new instructions to the x86 architecture for the enhancement of
multimedia.
1997
Intel Pentium II with MMX technology, 233-333MHz. 7 million tarnsistors.
Intel Pentium PRO 200MHz with 1MB of L2 cache.
1998
Intel Pentium II with MMX technology, 350-450MHz. 7 million tarnsistors.
100MHz bus architecture
Intel Celeron Pentium II with MMX technology and no L2 Cache..