So was 68K a dead end or just not profitable ?

[runequester]

Something I've been wondering about:

Was there a "dead end" in the 68K architecture that forced the switch to power PC, in order to keep up, or was it just not profitable for Motorola to do it alone anymore?

Any information and insights?

[Pyromania]

Motorola partnered up with IBM & Apple to form the AIM Alliance. More political then anything else.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM_alliance


Look how far x86 has come. You can extend architectures if you really want to.

[Iggy]

By the time the 68060 was introduced, most companies had moved on to other processors. This last 68K is quite a remarkable peice of engineering, but without the support of a major manufacturer (using it in a high volume system) the economics didn't cut it.

[SamuraiCrow]

Look how far x86 has come. You can extend architectures if you really want to.

See http://www.NatAmi.net for more information about the N68050 being developed as a softcore and the N68070 to follow as a superscalar version of the '050.  They've recently bumped up to the next size higher of FPGA chips allowing higher performance when the NatAmi comes out.  (And to add to the '050 and '070 they're also working on a SuperAGA multimedia chipset as well!)

[Pyromania]

NatAmi is nice but it would be a lot nicer if it shipped. We don't want BoXer all over again.

[SamuraiCrow]

I agree there but without floating point it's pretty much a non-starter for running any up-to-date OpenGL software for the 3D stuff.  They'd like to retool the FPU capabilites of the 68882 to make it either an SIMD unit like whatever version of SSE or to add a separate stream processor like the Cell SPE except multithreaded.

Also, to be a Boxer all over again they'd have to take preorders and never deliver.  The NatAmi team has refused to take preorders of any sort.

[Pyromania]

@SamuraiCrow

True, Antigrav screwed the pooch on the preorder thing. Maybe one of the biggest Amiga scams in 1990's. The Alien BoXer left for another planet and has never returned.

[Iggy]

Apparently, if Gunnar is to be believed, all the Natami requires is a fast blitter.

Frankly, I'd like it better if they focused on more CPU capabilities too (and more modern revisions to the graphics subsystem), but its their project.

Remember, unlike a business, the Natami project doesn't have to be profitable. So they'll do as they please and release when they feel ready.

[madcrow]

It was neither: it's only crime was to be non-trendy. At the time that development on 68K stopped, RISC chips were the "in" thing and while both the Intel Pentium and Motorola 68060 were clever designs that essentially built some CISC decoding logic on top of a RISC-like core (which combined the best of both worlds), 68K ended up dying because the higher-end systems that it got used in either died off or switched to RISC CPUs in order to check off the proper box on the sales brochure. x86 was spared death simply because the market it operated in wasn't as glamorous to begin with...

[Tension]

One word: Wintel.

[KThunder]

motorola sold and continues to sell 68k devices as microcontrollers. Cpus were actually a pretty small part of their sales.

In other words yeah it was a dead end as far as cpus go but definitely not dead, and yes it was and continues to be profitable.

[Zac67]

..., RISC chips were the "in" thing and while both the Intel Pentium and Motorola 68060 were clever designs that essentially built some CISC decoding logic on top of a RISC-like core (which combined the best of both worlds), ...

Nope. Neither Pentium nor '060 have RISC cores. They're superscalar CISC designs. Intel started with RISC cores for x86 with the Pentium Pro after many competitors already did it.

[KThunder]

there was more of a transition with the classic cisc machines. there where risc concepts being used in the '040 and 486. The 386 is considered to be the last of intels purely cisc cpus.
 
As for a pure risc core the pentium pro was the first, and it was a pretty good cpu too, the risc core in the ppro formed the basis or the ppro, the pII and the pIII

[alexh]

See http://www.NatAmi.net for more information about the N68050 being developed as a softcore and the N68070 to follow as a superscalar version of the '050.  They've recently bumped up to the next size higher of FPGA chips allowing higher performance when the NatAmi comes out.  (And to add to the '050 and '070 they're also working on a SuperAGA multimedia chipset as well!)

Shame it will suck compared to a real Rev6 060 (at least for a good 5-10 years until value FPGA's become able to map it at usable speeds).

motorola sold and continues to sell 68k devices as microcontrollers.

You mean Freescale

[alexh]

motorola sold and continues to sell 68k devices as microcontrollers.

You mean Freescale