8086 bugs (was: Legacy apps in Windows/OS X was Re: Old MS-DOS &

[Tony Duell]

> nuggets like the one you mentioned above.  He also mentioned that the 
> architects 
> called the sign extend instruction SEX, but management wouldn't have it. 
> Motorola apparently was less stodgy.

I've heard a similar story about DEC -- the engineers wanted to call the 
sign extend instruction on the PDP11 SEX, the management objected and 
insisted it was called SXT

The engineers got their own back when the VAX was released. The register 
that holds the address used in a transfer on the Unibus that times out is 
called the Failed UniBus Address Register (FUBAR). And that one did get 
into manuals, printests, etc.

-tony