The term is not synonymous with IBM PC compatibility, as this implies a multitude of other computer hardware embedded systems, and general-purpose computers, used x86 chips before the PC-compatible market started, some of them before the IBM PC (1981) debut.Īs of 2021, most personal computers, laptops and game consoles sold are based on the x86 architecture, while mobile categories such as smartphones or tablets are dominated by ARM at the high end, x86 continues to dominate compute-intensive workstation and cloud computing segments, while the fastest supercomputer is ARM-based, and the top 4 are no longer x86-based. Nevertheless, of those, only Intel, AMD, VIA Technologies, and DM&P Electronics hold x86 architectural licenses, and from these, only the first two are actively producing modern 64-bit designs.

The architecture has been implemented in processors from Intel, Cyrix, AMD, VIA Technologies and many other companies there are also open implementations, such as the Zet SoC platform (currently inactive). Many additions and extensions have been added to the x86 instruction set over the years, almost consistently with full backward compatibility. AMD Athlon (early version), a technically different but fully compatible x86 implementation

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