My first PC had an Intel 8088 8MHz processor. Along with 640KB RAM, 5,25" DD drive and a Seagate ST-225 'tank' it was installed in an ARC ProTurbo-88. The 8088 is a cheaper variant of the 8086. Whereas the 8086 has a 16-bit interface the 8088 has 8-bit. Because of this motherboard manufacturers could build less complex and thus cheaper motherboards.
The 8086 and 8088 are found in many old PC's. The original IBM PC had a 8086 for example. As Intel didn't have enough capacity to produce these chips other companies like Siemens and AMD started manufacturing these CPU's as well. These CPU's have both an AMD and Intel logo in case AMD build the processor.
I consider the 8086/8088 as 'the' starting home computer. Of course there are other models available with different CPU's but the 8086/8088 was (and is actually) the foundation of the CPU's today. CPU's like the 286, 386 and today's Intel Core and AMD Phenom / Opteron systems have something in common. The 8088 / 8086 featured an x86-architecture, just like today's CPU's in desktop PC's and many servers. Thanks to this it's possible to run old MS-DOS versions on the latest systems. Also 'thanks' to this some problems occurred because the 8086 / 8088 had limitations in addressing memory. Only true 32-bit operating systems (not MS-DOS, nor Windows '95 but Linux, Windows NT and up) escape this problem.
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