(iAPX 432) Intel's first 32-bit CPU, which comprised three chips and was therefore technically not a microprocessor. Introduced in 1981, the i432 was designed to replace the x86 architecture, which at the time embodied the 8088 chip used in the IBM PC as well as the 8086. Taking six years to develop, the i432 had a complex design that included built-in fault tolerance and support for object-oriented programming. Subsequent I/O and memory control chips were developed to enable the i432 to function in multiprocessing clusters of up to 63 nodes.
Just Too Slow
Due to hardware design choices and very faulty compilers, the i432 ran so slow that it was a complete failure. To meet IBM's requirement for the next-generation PC, Intel rushed the 286 chip to market and stayed with the x86 architecture for years to come. The "APX" moniker stood for "Advanced Processor Ar-chi-tecture," the X being the Greek "chi" character. See
x86.