What is a co-processor? What is its use in a typical microprocessor based system.
8087 NDP (numerical data processor) is also called math co-processor which is used in parallel with main processor for number crunching applications which would otherwise require complex programming. And it's faster than 8086/8088 processor in performing mathematical computation. It has its own specialized instruction sets to handle mathematical programs.
It is a processor which works in parallel with the main processor. It has its own set of specialized instructions. Number crunching part of the program is executed by 8087. Instruction for 8087 are written in main program interspersed with 8086 instructions. All 8087 instruction codes have 11011 as the most significant bits of their first code byte.