The 8087 numeric data processor (NDP) is specially designed to perform arithmetic operations efficiently.It can operate on data of the integer, decimal, and real types, with lengths ranging from 2 to 10 bytes.The instruction set not only includes various forms of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, but also provides many useful functions, such as taking the square root, exponentiation, taking the tangent and so on.

As an example of its computing power, the 8087 can multiply two 64-bit real numbers in about 27 µs and calculate a square root in about 36 µs.If performed by the 8086 through emulation, the same operations would require approximately 2 ms and 20 ms, respectively.