The Intel iAPX 432 used variable bit length instructions, where instruction lengths could be pretty much anything, completely unaligned with bytes. As you might expect, this was kind of a mess.
The iAPX 432 was designed to be Intel's revolutionary follow-on processor to the 8080 with all sorts of bizarre features such as objects implemented in hardware. However, it fell behind schedule, so Intel created the 8086 as a stopgap processor until the iAPX 432 was ready. Things didn't turn out as expected; the 8086 took over the world and the iAPX 432 was a failure.
The iAPX 432 was designed to be Intel's revolutionary follow-on processor to the 8080 with all sorts of bizarre features such as objects implemented in hardware. However, it fell behind schedule, so Intel created the 8086 as a stopgap processor until the iAPX 432 was ready. Things didn't turn out as expected; the 8086 took over the world and the iAPX 432 was a failure.