68K Macs with MacOS 7.5 still in production use...

[ben]

On 9/15/2016 1:34 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote:
> On 09/15/2016 11:38 AM, Noel Chiappa wrote:
>>> From: Chuck Guzis
>>
>>> Call it anything you want, but we know what Motorola called it.
>>
>> The _first implementation_ may have been 16-bit, but I am in no
>> doubt whatsover (having written a lot of assembler code for the 68K
>> family) that the _architecture_ was 32-bit:
>>
>> - 32-bit registers - many operations (arithmetical, logical, etc)
>> defined for that length - 32-bit addresses
>>
>> Etc, etc, etc, etc.
>
> Hence my comment.  It's a matter of what to believe--Motorola or your
> lyin' eyes.  :)
>
> Clearly, external bus size doesn't mean much in this discussion.  Take
> the NS32K series--from the -008 to the  -032, all basically the same
> internally.  For what it's worth, WikiP refers to them as the "first
> general-purpose 32-bit microcomputer".
>
> There have been a great many bit-serial computers in history,but I've
> never heard them called "one bit" architectures.  Register length is
> similarly no indication as internal registers can be any length and
> "visible" registers may not exist at all.
>
> 'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it
> means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.'
>
> --Chuck

I have a nice paper design for a 32 bit CPU using 2901 bit slices
that accesses 16 bit data for the 1976..1981 time frame.
With 512 Kb of  address space, 16Kx1 drams fill it to the brim.
Ample in hindsight for a Text Based DOS but not Window style OS.
1 Logic cards and 2 Alu cards would comprise the computer
section. Real I/O is still big iron , and that needs more thought
what size my SD card will be.
However at the moment my FPGA development platform, will be with
9/18 bit TTL Style cpu and I/O devices in the .5 to 2.5 MB range
on the SD CARD.

Back to the 68000. I really have no beefs about the 68000 other than
it could not handle Virtual Memory as well as the fact IBM had
370 mainframe cpu chip by changing the uCode in the 68000.

I still have found a Computer Architecture I like, with
the evil 8 bit bytes.

Ben.
PS: Ternary arithmetic I can understand, but Ternary Logic needs Mr 
Spock to figure out.