Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site lsuc.UUCP Path: utzoo!lsuc!jimomura From: jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura) Newsgroups: net.micro.6809,net.micro.68k Subject: Re: 68xxx v.s. 80xxx :-) Message-ID: <830@lsuc.UUCP> Date: Sun, 6-Oct-85 00:44:38 EDT Article-I.D.: lsuc.830 Posted: Sun Oct 6 00:44:38 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 6-Oct-85 00:59:20 EDT References: <370@wlbr.UUCP> Reply-To: jimomura@lsuc.UUCP (Jim Omura) Organization: Barrister & Solicitor, Toronto Lines: 46 Summary: 680x0 speed In article <370@wlbr.UUCP> steve@wlbr.UUCP (Steve Childress) writes: >.. >.. >Ever wonder why Motorola's microprocessors (6800, 6809, 680x0) seem to >never get as much hype and acceptance as Intel's? Psssst! .. here's why. > >Intel puts a divide-by-N counter for the main clock on their micro chips. >Not for marketing reasons, you understand. But in hindsight, it's clever. >Motorola doesn't. Hence, the idiots writing for the media belittle the >680x's for being far slower than the 80x's. > >Goodness, gracious, a 2MHz 6809 simply *MUST* be inferior to a 6MHz Z80! > >HEY MOTOROLA! The path to riches is obvious! Put a divider in the "68020A" >so that the outside clock frequency will be 500MHz! Or make it a hybrid >with a 100GHz clock! > >I can imagine INFOWORLD headlines now! > > Regards, > Steve Childress > Eaton IMS R&D Group MS 43 > 31717 La Tienda Drive > Westlake Village, CA 91360 > (818) 889-2211 X2148 > {trwrb, scgvaxd, ihnp4, voder, vortex} !wlbr!steve > or ...wlbr!wlbreng1!steve Actually the 68000 family isn't all that fast. Check some cycle counts and you'll find that the 68000 and 68008 are cycle hogs. I don't have figures for the 68010, but the 68020 was a substantial improvement. I think they dropped the mean from over 4 cycles to about 3 cycles for most instructions. That plus much higher clock speed makes it a very much faster processor. -- James Omura, Barrister & Solicitor, Toronto ihnp4!utzoo!lsuc!jimomura Byte Information eXchange: jimomura Compuserve: 72205,541 MTS at WU: GKL6