Intel 8086 Simulator

A cycle-accurate Intel 8086 CPU simulator written in Rust, developed as part of Casey Muratori's Computer, Enhance performance-oriented programming course.

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Overview

This project implements a simulation of the Intel 8086 processor, covering instruction decoding and execution with a focus on correctness and performance. It was built as a hands-on exercise in low-level systems programming, CPU architecture, and performance-aware software design.

Features

• Intel 8086 instruction decoding and execution
• Register and memory state simulation
• Support for a range of 8086 instructions including MOV, arithmetic, and control flow
• Attempt at cycle-accurate execution modelling

Getting Started

Prerequisites

• Rust (latest stable)

Build & Run

cargo run

Course Context

This simulator was built following Computer, Enhance by Casey Muratori — a course focused on performance-aware programming from first principles, starting at the hardware level. The course covers CPU architecture, instruction sets, memory hierarchies, and profiling-driven optimisation.

References

• Intel 8086 Datasheet
• Computer, Enhance