Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!sdd.hp.com!hplabs!hpfcso!mjs
From: mjs@hpfcso.HP.COM (Marc Sabatella)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st
Subject: Re: Re: TT upgrades
Message-ID: <7340079@hpfcso.HP.COM>
Date: 11 Feb 91 18:50:05 GMT
References: <1991Feb7.213305.26568@jato.jpl.nasa.gov>
Organization: Hewlett-Packard, Fort Collins, CO, USA
Lines: 30

> >The 68030 and 68040 are obsolete because:
> >1.  At the same clock rate, even the 68040 is less than half as fast as
> >    the 88000.

>  Are you talking instructions per second here?  I'm sure you realize that the
>  individual 68040 instructions are more powerful than individual 88000
>  instructions (in general).

Not only that, but I doubt the original claim.  The 68040 comes pretty close
to one instruction per cycle if you perform some instruction scheduling.  It
can almost certainly average under 2 clocks per instruction.  Does the 88000
average under 1?

Anyhow, what counts is how fast an "equivalently equipped" computer with the
two chips will run.  A 25 Mhz 68040 can generate a SPEC rating of around 11, or
more with an external cache.  It cranks about 30,000 Dhrystones.  Will a 25 MHz
88000 get over 20 SPECmarks or 60,000 Dhrystones?

>2.  Motorola has only two REAL 680x0 customers left: Apple and Motorola.  NeXT
>    might pick up some slack, but not more than 2-3% in the foreseeable future.

I think you are forgetting the workstation market.  HP (& Apollo) has a rather
large market share (#2, behind Sun), almost entirely based on 680x0
workstations.

--------------
Marc Sabatella (marc@hpmonk.fc.hp.com)
Disclaimers:
	2 + 2 = 3, for suitably small values of 2
	Bill and Dave may not always agree with me