Word.ws English Dictionary

x87

x87 proper noun: an extension to the x86 CPU instruction set architecture, providing direct hardware support for advanced floating-point arithmetic operations (rather than requiring them to be emulated in software).

Proper noun

x87

  1. An extension to the x86 CPU instruction set architecture, providing direct hardware support for advanced floating-point arithmetic operations (rather than requiring them to be emulated in software).

Origin of x87

Named after the product designations of the coprocessors used to provide floating-point support on early x86 systems lacking hardware support for these instructions in the main processor: the 8087 (for the 8086/8088 CPU), 80287 (for the 80286 CPU), 80387 (for the 80386 CPU), and 80487SX (for the 80486SX CPU). The 80486DX CPU and later integrated the floating-point hardware into the main processor, but the name continued in use for this set of instructions. The x serves as a wildcard.

Questions about x87

What does x87 mean?
X87 means an extension to the x86 CPU instruction set architecture, providing direct hardware support for advanced floating-point arithmetic operations (rather than requiring them to be emulated in software).
What part of speech is x87?
X87 is a proper noun.

Words near x87 in the dictionary

  1. x86
  2. x86-16
  3. x86-32
  4. x86-64
  5. x86`lowbar`64
  6. x87
  7. XA
  8. XACML
  9. xacuti
  10. xacutti
  11. Xaenorphica

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: x87 (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “x87.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/x87. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.