Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!wuarchive!uunet!auspex!guy From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris) Newsgroups: comp.arch Subject: Re: New Moto chips (was Will NeXT survive?) Message-ID: <7627@auspex.auspex.com> Date: 4 May 91 22:45:07 GMT References: <3397@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> <14720@encore.Encore.COM> Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara Lines: 24 > Harumph...the latest chip announcements from Motorola include (more > or less): > > - a 68040 with the MMU and FPU disabled > - a 68030 with the MMU disabled > - cheaper/faster/better 68020s and 68000s (no FPU or MMU to disable) ... >I hope NeXT isn't planning to put any of these in their machines. >They just won't do the job. It sounds like Apple trying to keep those >profit margins up. Those chips sound like the 68EC040, 68EC030, 68EC020, and 68EC000, respectively; "EC" stands, presumably, for "Embedded Controller", that being what the chips are intended to serve as CPUs for. I don't think Motorola had UNIX-box vendors like NeXT in mind; they may or may not have had Apple in mind, but I wouldn't be the least surprised to find they didn't have Apple in mind either. It doesn't sound to *me* at all like "Apple trying to keep those profit margins up"; it sounds like Motorola trying to retain or increase market share in embedded control....