Decoding the NEC V20 Microcode

(martypc.blogspot.com)

98 points | by mariuz 3 days ago

5 comments

  • klelatti 2 hours ago
    Of course the V20’s microcode was the centre of an interesting legal dispute when NEC was sued by Intel.

    https://thechipletter.substack.com/p/intel-vs-nec-the-case-o...

    • rep_lodsb 29 minutes ago
      Mentioned in the article, same link too. The court documents included a diagram of the microcode format, and also a comparison of the reset sequence between Intel and NEC.
  • jeanmichelselli 3 hours ago
    This is an amazing project, I'm always impressed by stuff like this. I'd be very curious to know, though, if there's a market for achievements like that.
  • eigenform 1 hour ago
    Lovely work, thanks for sharing!
  • ck2 54 minutes ago
    ha I remember that chip so well

    instant speed boost for IBM PC

    just pop out the 8088 and put in a $20 V20

    only problems is some programs ran their clocks too fast

    wow that article is amazing, I cannot believe people can reverse engineer at that level, brilliant

  • 486sx33 3 hours ago
    [dead]