I've always thought the 8087 was a marvelous bit of engineering. I never understood why it didn't get much respect in the software business.
For example, when Microsoft was making Win64, I caught wind that they were not going to save the x87 state during a context switch, which would have made use of the x87 impractical with Win64. I got upset about that, and contacted Microsoft and convinced them to support it.
But the deprecation of the x87 continued, as Microsoft C did not provide an 80 bit real type.
Back in the late 80's, Zortech C/C++ was the first compiler to fully implement NaN in the C math library.
For example, when Microsoft was making Win64, I caught wind that they were not going to save the x87 state during a context switch, which would have made use of the x87 impractical with Win64. I got upset about that, and contacted Microsoft and convinced them to support it.
But the deprecation of the x87 continued, as Microsoft C did not provide an 80 bit real type.
Back in the late 80's, Zortech C/C++ was the first compiler to fully implement NaN in the C math library.