High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Intel 80286 (also called iAPX 286), introduced on 1 February 1982, was a 16-bit x86 microprocessor with 134,000 transistors. Like its contemporary simpler cousin, the 80186, it could correctly execute most software written for the earlier Intel 8086 and 8088. It was employed for the IBM PC/AT, introduced in 1984, and then widely used in most PC/AT compatible computers until the early 1990s.The 80286 is the first member of the family of advanced microprocessors with memory management and wide protection abilities.