CompuServe Messages

> Over the entire run of the 680×0 series, Apple has accounted > for less than 10% of the output. They are a big customer, but > not so big that Motorola would really give a hoot. That fact distorts the current situation. Rephrase that as how much of Moto's production of '030 and higher for DESKTOP systems has Apple bought? Your comment includes early 68000 chips which are _everywhere_, as well as embeded applications which rarely have use of high end chips. Apple is the biggest high end customer Moto has. >If anything, it's Motorola that has the leverage here since Apple > has little leeway in terms of switching vendors and maintaining > backwards compatibility. Apple is the reason Moto was brought in as a way to make up for the loss of the 88K which Apple had commited to buy. They, in effect, "bought off" Moto by getting them the PPC contract. > Considering the capabilities of the PPC, why should Motorola devote > any further manufacturing resources to the 68060, particularly if > they believe that CISC CPU's are at the end of the line? Very true. > Freud said that sometimes a cigar is just a cigar – and sometimes > business decisions are just business decisions, not acts of conspiracy. If more people belived that bit of common sense, we would not have theories about maybe the driver is the one who killed Kennedy. (As we all know it _has_ to be someone other than the logical choice). I view the '060 as a nice chip with little room for expansion. By removing all of the roadblocks that the architecture brings, Moto opened up much more powerful directions to go.