Re: Past Blast - "Wonder Woman 1984" - Corp Guy Using PET

On 4/5/25 8:14 PM, Robert Riches wrote:

On 2025-04-05, c186282 <c186282@nnada.net> wrote:

...
>
    I still see debate over whether the 6502 was 'better'
    than the 6809. The 6502 was envisioned as the 'improved'
    6809 by the Motorola defectors - and in some ways was.
    However they also left out some registers that were
    convenient to compiler writers. So, no verdict.

 I don't have chapter and verse to quote, but back in the day I
was told that the original design of the 6502 _WAS_ superior to
the 6809, but Motorola sued on a basis of IP theft or similar,
and the 6502 was dumbed down by removing registers and/or
crippling the indexing modes.  One of the first things that
struck me about the 6502's indexing and other addressing modes
was that it looked/smelled crippled.

   The ex-Motorola people saw ways to improve the 68xx series,
   especially in doing instructions in fewer machine cycles.
   Motorola didn't want to change anything. In that, success.
   MHz for MHz the 6502 was faster.
   BUT also at some costs ...
   Decades of perspective ... I'm gonna say they were both
   great chips for consumer-level products. The CoCo people
   will swear by the 68's, the Apple/Commodore people will
   swear by the 65's.

Around 1980 or so, I had a short assembly program for 6502.  It
may have been a college assignment.  Just for fun, I rewrote it
for 6800 and then for 6809.  Then, I counted the number of
instructions in all three versions.  The 6800 version used 2/3
the number of instructions as the 6502 version.  The 6809 version
used half of the instructions of the 6502 version.

   Yep - WAS easier to write, well, for the 68xx chips.
   BUT, the 65xx pgm would probably run just as fast, in
   some cases even faster. I think they were selling the
   chips cheaper too.
   Six/half-dozen ....
   The 68000 chips were digital poetry - a Motorola
   triumph. Alas they could never quite make enough,
   fast enough, CHEAP enough ........ and Intel ran
   in to fill the gap. IBM *almost* went with the
   68000 - but licensing/quantity issues got in
   the way. Also wanted a wider bus (except the
   68008) ... which was a tad more expensive for
   IBM.
   The Company wanted into the PC biz, but
   did not want to risk TOO much investment.
   Seems regressive, but smart investment is why
   IBM is still around and profits, a blue-chip
   stock, after all this time.
   Somehow, Mighty Mo flubbed it.
   Oh, it also would have been CP/M-68k, not DOS.
   Frankly, DOS was better/easier.
   68000-compatibles are STILL sold under other
   makers names - STILL have uses in 'devices',
   esp printers.