x86

x86 is a design language for computer processors—the chip that acts as your computer's brain. If processors are engines, x86 is one particular engine design philosophy that's dominated personal computers for 40+ years.

When someone says "x86," they're referring to processors that understand a specific set of instructions. It's like how some cars run on gasoline and others on diesel—x86 processors "run on" x86 instructions.

The weird name comes from Intel's chip model numbers in the late 70s and 80s:

• 8086 (1978)
• 80286
• 80386
• 80486

They all ended in "86." So people just started calling the whole family "x86."

The main alternative today is ARM (used in your phone, Apple's M-series Macs, and increasingly in servers). The car analogy: x86 is like a big V8 engine—powerful, proven, but thirsty. ARM is like a modern turbo-4—efficient, increasingly powerful, better for battery life.

x86 advantages:

• Massive software library (everything just works)
• Mature tooling and developer knowledge
• Still dominates servers and high-performance computing

x86 disadvantages:

• Carries 40 years of design baggage for backwards compatibility
• Less power-efficient than ARM
• Harder to innovate because you can't break old software

The core tension: x86's greatest strength (compatibility) is also its greatest weakness (complexity and power consumption). ARM started fresh with mobile constraints, which is why it's more efficient.