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ErroneousBosh 3 hours ago

They were not made in especially large numbers and they were - look at Ken Shirriff's blog - way more complex than the 8088 chip.

Can't find "good" figures but they were apparently about $100 in 1980 money for an 8088 and about five times that for the 8087, something like that.

That'd be something like $400-odd and $2000-odd in today's money.

jcranmer 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I may be misremembering my source (an interview with the 8087 architect lead), but I want to say the die yield on the 8087 was like 30%... just barely feasible for Intel to actually make.

adrian_b 2 hours ago | parent [-]

The original 8087 had low yields not only because it had a greater area, but also because it was made with a special technology that was used in few other devices (VMOS), so it was more complex and there was less manufacturing experience with it than with the technology used to make 8086 (HMOS).

Later revisions of 8087 used a standard technology and a shrunk die, with improved yields.