System programming basics

The developers chose the 8088 over the 8086 because, while the 8088 worked on a 16-bit basis internally, it only communicated with the outside world using an 8-bit data bus. Since the 8-bit DataMaster data bus already existed, the 8088 was the obvious choice. This bus connects the motherboard of the PC, where the processor and its support chips are resident, to the memory and the expansion boards, which are plugged into the expansion slots.