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From: mats@dual.UUCP (Mats Wichmann)
Newsgroups: net.micro.68k,net.micro.16k
Subject: Re: 68020 vs 16k - is the 020 worth the wait?
Message-ID: <255@dual.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 15-Feb-84 00:40:47 EST
Article-I.D.: dual.255
Posted: Wed Feb 15 00:40:47 1984
Date-Received: Fri, 10-Feb-84 04:15:18 EST
References: <179@tropix.UUCP>, <3493@utzoo.UUCP>
Organization: Dual Systems, Berkeley, CA
Lines: 36


    Ah, yes, the long awaited 68020 and the even more mysterious
    MMU chip to go with it. For those of you who are worried about the
    MMU, they got the message and threw out the 68451 design. In
    fact, I understand that Motorola stole away some of the guys that
    did the National MMU, so they should be somewhat similar. Ever wonder
    why the top people always seem to be leaving National??? Or do they
    just get bad publicity? We have all of the most current poop on the 68020, 
    all stamped Motorola Company Confidential, so I can't really elaborate
    on the exact details, although nobody has been far off the mark.

    The MMU is a different question entirely - details are sketchy,
    primarily because even the paper design is not complete yet.
    3 months after the 020 may be possible - only if the 020 is as late
    as some of their other chips have been. If you are trying to
    design a product using the trio - CPU, MMU, and FFP, you will
    be waiting a long time before that product comes to market.
    But is the 020 worth waiting for? Depends on your perspective -
    from MY jaded point of view, neither the 020 OR the 32032 is
    particularly new or interesting techology, and nothing else
    really new seems to be turning up elsewhere...so it depends
    on other factors - when do you need a machine, for how much,
    what should it do, and so forth. Is it worth waiting a year
    for a system running the 020 when you could have spent that
    time in productive work on a 68000? In general, I don't think
    the chip inside the system makes that much difference. What
    really makes the difference is how the machine runs your
    application, how reliable it is, and how well it is supported.
    And THIS really comes down to the qualtiy of the vendor and what
    he has done with his product. Okay, enough with the soapbox...


	Mats Wichmann
	Dual Systems
	Berkeley, Ca.
	{ucbvax,amd70,ihnp4,cbosgd,decwrl,fortune}!dual!mats