The 8086 microprocessor is Intel's first 16-bit microprocessor released in 1978. It has 20 address lines allowing it to access up to 1 megabyte of memory. It uses segmented memory architecture where the 1 megabyte address space is divided into segments of 64KB each. The 8086 has four 16-bit segment registers - code segment, data segment, stack segment, and extra segment. It operates on minimum and maximum modes determined by the MN/MX pin. In maximum mode, additional pins are used for bus requests and grants.