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kenslast Sunday at 12:15 AM2 repliesview on HN

The ROM in the 8087 was very unusual: It used four transistor sizes so it could store two bits per transistor, so the storage was four-level. Analog comparators converted the output from the ROM back to binary. This was necessary to fit the ROM onto the die. The logic gates on the chip were all binary.

I wrote about this in detail a few years ago: https://www.righto.com/2018/09/two-bits-per-transistor-high-...


Replies

bandramitoday at 11:15 AM

That sounds like it would get insanely hot

pwglast Sunday at 5:02 AM

Thanks, I must have missed that older post somehow.