Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!csd4.milw.wisc.edu!bionet!ames!pacbell!att!ihlpl!knudsen
From: knudsen@ihlpl.ATT.COM (Knudsen)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.m6809
Subject: Re: MC6809 almost picked by IBM
Summary: Maybe
Keywords: IBM PC, 6809 based PC
Message-ID: <9891@ihlpl.ATT.COM>
Date: 29 Mar 89 22:59:54 GMT
References: <392@aucis.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories - Naperville, Illinois
Lines: 37

In article <392@aucis.UUCP>, easton@aucis.UUCP (Jeff Easton) writes:
>   silver lining to Motorla, which lost out to Intel's 8088 in th
>   original design-win because it could not deliver the 6809 MPU to IBM -

> I have never heard of this before or after this specific article.  Is it
> true?  If so, why would IBM have picked the 8 bit 6809 over the 16 bit
> 68000, which I belive was avaliable at roughly the same time?

What I read/heard on good authority (?) was that IBM had at least three
separate design teams, scattered throughout the US,
each developing their own version of the future IBM PC.
For whatever reason, the team (from Florida I think) with the 8088
design won the contest.  I think the 68K design was "too expensive"
due to its 16-bit bus (was the 68008 an afterthought?)
As for the 6809, OS9 was not yet out either, but if IBM had gone
with the 6809 they would have got into bed with MicroWare along
(Motorola already was), and DesMoines would have double its current
population ;-).

At least one of the other designs used some Motorola
chip.  However, my own employer at that time reluctantly chose
the 8086 over the 68K for an internal project because Motorola
did not have the peripheral chips and the software support
ready for the 68K.  Intel had the infamous upgraded Intellec box,
plus all their old 8080 8-bit peripheral chips worked just fine
on the 8088's bus (and are easy to adapt to an 8086 too).

If Motorola could have got their support (and bug free uP chips)
to market a year earlier, Intel would probably be an interesting
chapter in Silicon Valley history by now.  Unforch'ly, when the
cop brags "you can't outrun Motorola" he's talking about radios.

BTW one hears rumors of OS9 for the 80386.  Imagine OS9 as
an alternative to OS/2 on the PS/2 machines.
-- 
Mike Knudsen  Bell Labs(AT&T)   att!ihlpl!knudsen
"Anyone can build a conservative design, given liberal resources." -- MJK