Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!max!crisp From: crisp@mips.COM (Richard Crisp) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: Tektronix shutdown & move away from 88k's?? Message-ID: <42530@mips.mips.COM> Date: 30 Oct 90 17:52:56 GMT References: <1536@ftc.framentec.fr> <1990Oct19.120218.9450@canterbury.ac.nz> <15497@hydra.gatech.EDU> <2176@lupine.NCD.COM> <42310@mips.mips.COM> <42488@mips.mips.COM> <2806@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> Sender: news@mips.COM Reply-To: crisp@mips.COM (Richard Crisp) Organization: MIPS Computer Systems, Inc. Lines: 29 In article <2806@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> davidsen@crdos1.crd.ge.com (bill davidsen) writes: >In article <42488@mips.mips.COM> crisp@mips.COM (Richard Crisp) writes: > >| I also remember back in 1978 or 1979 that Byte stated that Motorola would >| offer a version of the 68000 that had the microcode in EPROM so that >| users could re-microprogram it for whatever instruction set they wanted! > > That actually may have been a plan at the time. I believe that IBM >PC/370 system was based on a 68k with modified microcode, and I heard >that the original idea was to allow anyone to modifiy the engine to >custom applications. > The PC/370 did use 68K chips with modified microcode. They also had several modifications made to the "core" as well. When we (the 68K design team) read the Byte article I mentioned above, we all laughed. It was the most ludricrous thing we had heard to date regarding our chip. There never was a plan to offer user microprogrammable 68K's that any of us has heard of before or after that date. Byte simply stuck their neck out and printed some unfounded rumor as they have done recently involving BIT and the R6000 chipset. It happens all the time in the press. You just can't believe everything you read. -- Richard Crisp crisp@mips.com MIPS Computer Systems !decwrl!mips!crisp 928 Arques MS 2-02 (408) 524-8177 Sunnyvale, Ca 94086