Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!mcvax!kunivv1!hobbit!ge
From: ge@hobbit.sci.kun.nl (Ge' Weijers)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.m68k
Subject: Re: How plug compatible is 68010?
Message-ID: <302@hobbit.sci.kun.nl>
Date: 26 Jul 88 15:58:35 GMT
References: <224@bcsfse.UUCP>
Organization: University of Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
Lines: 20

From article <224@bcsfse.UUCP>, by bill@bcsfse.UUCP (Bill Sears):
>     I have a UNIX computer with a 68000 processor.  I have heard that
> the 68000 has a problem with restarting an instruction and thus virtual
> memory systems are impossible (??).  I have also heard that the 68010
> corrects the bug in the 68000, and that it is plug-compatible.  What I'm
> wondering is, is it really 100% pin-compatible with the 68000?  Can I buy
> a 68010, replace the 68000 in my computer and still run all of the exist-
> ing software and have everything work?  Is it that easy?
> 
It might be pin-compatible, but it is NOT software-compatible. The stack-
frame after a bus error for example is different (there was not enough
information to restart the instruction in the 68000 stackframe)
Operating systems might have trouble with the changed stackframe.
(it is possible to write the exceptionhandlers in such a way that this
is not a problem)


-- 
Ge' Weijers, Informatics dept., Nijmegen University, the Netherlands
UUCP: {uunet!,}mcvax!kunivv1!hobbit!ge