Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!snorkelwacker!spdcc!ima!esegue!johnl
From: johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine)
Newsgroups: comp.arch
Subject: Re: IBM PC prehistory (was Japanese Josephson breakthrough?)
Message-ID: <1989Dec22.052137.2764@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us>
Date: 22 Dec 89 05:21:37 GMT
References: <1546@aber-cs.UUCP> <33896@mips.mips.COM> <21559@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU>
Reply-To: johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us (John R. Levine)
Organization: Segue Software, Cambridge MA
Lines: 12

In article <21559@uflorida.cis.ufl.EDU> seeger@manatee.cis.ufl.edu (F. L. Charles Seeger III) writes:
>I think that IBM choose Intel for largely business reasons, like availability
>of second sources for parts ...

My understanding is that the PC was originally supposed to be a CP/M Z-80 box.
Fairly late in the design they decided to go with a 16-bit chip and at the
time the 8088 was the only 16 bit processor that would run on an 8 bit bus.
Who knows, if the 68008 were ready they might have used that.
-- 
John R. Levine, Segue Software, POB 349, Cambridge MA 02238, +1 617 864 9650
johnl@esegue.segue.boston.ma.us, {ima|lotus|spdcc}!esegue!johnl
"Now, we are all jelly doughnuts."