80386... When the PC clones really took off
Must have been a riotous ride at Intel during the shift to the 386. Younger guys probably do not understand what it felt like to live and work through the tectonic shifts in tech at the time.
286... Nobody ever got fired for buying an IBM PC/AT. Compaq and Gateway (remember them?) were growing fast but most businesses were a little skeptical. 10MB hard drives were a status symbol as much as a tool. Still, IBM was getting scared and tried to re-establish their monopoly using their awful PS/2 machines with their proprietary microchannel bus. The PS/2 was supposed to be the bridge to the 32 bit multitasking future, but it was really just an attempt to return industry to craptivity. Industry answered with EISA and then PCI... That's when the 386 hit... Win 95 became something somewhat useful... And the modern PC market was born. IBM got kicked in the teeth, and Intel had to move cash to the bank with conveyors. Good times.
It all came flooding back to me just a couple of years ago. I had to repair and upgrade a box run by a microcontroller. Opened it up... And saw a 80186 staring back at me. 186. Tools? Debuggers?
Documentation??? CORRECT documentation??? What doubly-damned ring of hell I had arrived in?! Be careful wishing for the good ole days... They can come back!