Despite all the excitement over the 80386, the 8086 and its derivatives are far from dead, and the highly-integrated 80186, something of a hidden sleeper of a product since it is not widely used as a CPU, has been given a major facelift by Intel Corp. The 80186 is used primarily in applications such as communications gateways, file servers and terminal controllers, Intel Corp has begun sampling a 12.5MHz version, the first in its CHMOS version of CMOS. The 80C186 is likely to find a ready market among low-end lap-top Personalike designers, because as well as being fabricated in low-power CMOS, it includes power-save logic that enables processor speed to be traded off against power consumption – the clock cycle can be divided by one for full speed, or by four, eight or 16, so that if your battery was running low, you could slow the CPU right down and extend its working time – it requires only 90mA when run-ning at one eighth speed. The part is pin-for-pin compatible with the HMOS 80186, but is modified to take next generation maths co-processors. It costs $18 when you buy 1,000 or more, and a 16MHz version is planned for first quarter 1988.
