Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site kontron.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!ihnp4!pesnta!pertec!kontron!steve From: steve@kontron.UUCP (Steve McIntosh) Newsgroups: net.micro.68k Subject: 68vs86 (flame?) Message-ID: <253@kontron.UUCP> Date: Mon, 17-Jun-85 16:28:58 EDT Article-I.D.: kontron.253 Posted: Mon Jun 17 16:28:58 1985 Date-Received: Wed, 19-Jun-85 04:22:53 EDT Distribution: net Organization: Kontron Electronics, Irvine, CA Lines: 79 68000 family .vs. 8086 family processors One Hackers Opinion Lately, there has been much traffick over the net concerning the relative merits of the Intel 8086 family of processors and the Motorola 68000 family of processors. This brings back memories of the old 6502 .vs. Z80 arguments that kept many people fighting one another over what amounted to a religious war. Simply put, comparing the two families is like comparing apples and oranges (or Mac's and PC's). The two microprocessor families were targeted at different markets. The 8086 family at the business market (bean counters) and the 68000 at the scientific market (electron pushers). Further, the 8086 family was designed with multiple users in mind, so that a whole corral of bean counters could (eventually) use the same machine or one bean counter could count several different colors of bean at one time. The 68000 was designed with crunching numbers and pushing electrons around at the maximum speed. For ONE electron pusher. This is much the same division as the Z80/6502 dogma. The Faithful Newsletter Editor of DTACK grounded has compared the 8086 family to a large truck designed to transport many sheep, each in it's own segment (er.. stall) while the 68000 family is likened to a Ferrari that will get one person somewhere FAST. Which thing do you want to do? A Ferrari won't get many sheep to market, and a large truck will not get anything anywhere fast. Apples and oranges - the best processor for an application depends on the application itself. I feel that most of the confusion on the net is that the 8086 family is much more in tune with the objectives of many of the people on the net who don't consider a computer a REAL computer unless it can multi-task ala UNIX. The 68000 often loses its speed advantage when forced to do task switching or is crippled with a memory manager. Most of the people on the net want to crunch numbers or do other exotic non-bean type activities, and so are attracted to the 68000. However, they also want all the bells and whistles of UNIX, which the 68000 was not really designed for. And the religious war continues, only it is now a 16/32 bit war instead of just an 8 bit war. I would be interested in seeing various people defining their NEEDS and then discussing which processor fits the need and not the want. == Entering Flame Zone == Personally I would rather drive a suction truck and vaccuum portable toilets than write assembly language code for the 8086 family. However there is a lot of money to be made driving a vaccuum truck. The 68000 on the other hand is a joy to write assembly code for. Not being a compiler writer, I can understand and appreciate the trade-off's that were made in the 68000 instruction set plus the bonus of all those registers! Also, as I was hacking back in the Dark Ages of Microcomputers (the early 70's) multi user/tasking systems seem to be a giant step backwards to the old mainframe mentality. I can see interleaving a CPU intensive task (like a compiler or assembler) with an I/O bound task (like an editor) and a couple of interrupt sources to run a knee-jerk print spooler, but going beyond a simple foreground/background system seems to be overkill - and degrading (of the system, that is.) But enough of my personal gripes. The world is big enough for all types, and those of you who crave standards or the One True Processor aren't going to change the way the market works so: == Flame Off == The ravings expressed in this posting are personal and should not be taken as being in accord with any other person, or any company.