Login
You're viewing the frontrange.co public feed.
  • Oct 18, 2026, 5:06 PM

    Have you ever thought about how your computer adds and subtracts? It takes a lot of hardware to handle floating-point numbers like 12.34. I opened up Intel's 8087 math coprocessor chip from 1980 to see how it works...

    The 8087 chip with the top popped off to reveal the silicon die inside. Complex patterns are visible on the silicon. The chip is a ceramic rectangle. It has 40 metal pins, 20 on each side. The surface of the chip is rough and tan colored.
    💬 0🔄 25⭐ 24