Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!apple!baum
From: baum@Apple.COM (Allen J. Baum)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: 8086 design goals
Message-ID: <30839@apple.Apple.COM>
Date: 16 May 89 17:22:20 GMT
References: <938@aber-cs.UUCP>
Reply-To: baum@apple.UUCP (Allen Baum)
Organization: Apple Computer, Inc.
Lines: 20

[]
 various people have said stuff about whether the 8086 was designed for PASCAL.
An anecdotal kind of story:

When I was consulting for Apple, (when the LISA project was just starting up,
& they were trying to decide which processor to use), a couple of people
who had been consultants to Intel gave a presentation on the architecture,
and how it was designed to run PASCAL. I belive that Steve Glanville was one
of those people. The implication was that they had been involved in the
architectural definition of the chip.

More anecdote: I suggested another option, rather than the 8086. I
investigated it for a week, then came back and told them not to screw
around, the 8086 would run rings around it. However, they were so
enamored with the idea that the stuck with it for a year or so, then
gave up. By that time, the 68000 was actually available, and they
easily chose that over the 8086.
--
		  baum@apple.com		(408)974-3385
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