x86 is a family of backward compatible instruction set architectures based on the Intel 8086 CPU and its Intel 8088 variant. The 8086 was introduced in 1978 as a fully 16-bit extension of Intel's 8-bit based 8080 microprocessor, with memory segmentation as a solution for addressing more memory than can be covered by a plain 16-bit address. The term "x86" came into being because the names of several successors to the Intel's 8086 processor ended in "86", including 80186, 80286, 80386 and 80486 processors.