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Design a simple instruction set to begin with and leave room for later expansion -
main reason the x86 is so popular and long-lived.
Intel started with a relatively simple CPU and figured out how to extend the instruction set to accommodate new features.
IBM decided that open documentation is a good thing.
IBM published the Technical Reference Manual, with everything the engineers knew about the machine, which was another reason for the success of the IBM PC platform.
See also: and CNN article Meet the inventor of Ctrl-Alt-Delete
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