Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!cmcl2!rutgers!mtune!codas!killer!ninja!sys1!trsvax!uhclem
From: uhclem@trsvax.UUCP
Newsgroups: comp.sys.m68k
Subject: Re: The New Chips
Message-ID: <193100005@trsvax>
Date: 4 Feb 88 16:37:00 GMT
References: <4746@watdragon.waterloo.edu>
Lines: 47
Nf-ID: #R:watdragon.waterloo.edu:4746:trsvax:193100005:000:2326
Nf-From: trsvax.UUCP!uhclem    Feb  4 10:37:00 1988


R33>/* Written 1:45 pm Feb  1, 1988 by edge.UUCP!doug in trsvax:comp.sys.m68k */

R33>Tons of way-back info deleted here...

R33>Motorola makes the 68000, but by company policy they won't sell them for
R33>use in home computers.

R33>More stuff skipped....

R33>The point that most people miss when they berate IBM for having gone with
R33>Intel is that the 68000 was *not* an available option at the time.  A few
R33>years later, Apple would get its foot in the door with the Lisa (not a home
R33>computer), and then managed to pry the door wide open with the Macintosh.

Uh, Remember the Tandy Model 16?  Came out in early 1982?  Designed in 1981
and sorta had a 68000 processor in it?  You know, a personal computer?  In 1985
its name got respelled and was called Tandy 6000?  A lot of each of those
suckers were sold.  They were expensive, but at the time, their price was
matched by an equivalent PC or early XT.   Now how did Tandy manage to pry
those 68000's out of Motorola if they were so dead set on keeping them out
of the home market?   And when did Mac get announced?  Oh yes, during
the Super Bowl in 1984.

R33>Other than the 68000, what would *you* have designed in, hmmm?  And remember
R33>that this is supposed to be a low-cost home computer: the standard machine
R33>has 16K of RAM, uses cassette tape for storage, and BASIC in ROM; for the
R33>big-time user the mother-board can hold up to 64K of RAM and you can put
R33>two single-sided 160KB floppy disk drives in the machine.

All I can say is maybe IBM should have taken the hint from Radio Shack on
what to do with the cassette storage.  I actually know someone who
bought the early IBM PC with the cassette port and no floppies.  You could
run, well, BASIC.  He put an order in for a floppy drive after two days.

Could it be that Tandy saw the 68000 as the next logical step above the
Z-80?  Perhaps too big a step, as they fell back to the 186, then to the 8088.

<My opinion.  I also like registers.  I also like instructions that work in
 more than just one specific register.  Even the IBM 370 without a stack
 was more regular than the average Letni.  Perhaps a BALR is in order.>
						
						"Thank you, Uh Clem."
						Frank Durda IV
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