The microcode circuitry is visible in the die photo below. It has a special address decoder that optimizes the storage. Physically, the microcode is stored in a 128×84 array. The microcode engine is assisted by two smaller ROMs: the 'Group Decode ROM' to categorize machine instructions, and the 'Translation ROM' to branch to microcode subroutines for address calculation and other roles. The return address for microcode subroutine calls. The microcode engine has a 13-bit register that steps through the microcode, along with a 13-bit subroutine register to store The microcode in the 8086 consists of 512 micro-instructions, each 21 bits wide. It was a challenge to fit the microcode onto the chip with 1978 technology, so Intel used many optimization techniques to Inside the microcode, and physically stores the microcode. Instead, I'll look at how the 8086 decides what microcode to run, steps through the microcode, handles jumps and calls The microcode controls the rest of the processor here. I'm not going to discuss the contents of the microcode 1

I've been reverse-engineering the 8086 from die photos and this blog post discusses how the chip's microcode engine operated. The 8086 chip uses microcode internally to implement its instruction set. It led to the x86 architecture that still dominates The 8086 microprocessor was a groundbreaking processor introduced by Intel in 1978.