Re: Stolen designs


David wrote:
dagmargoodboat@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
Keith wrote:
In article <59ru829m1p0u7iui8luip9tibt5sh4dq0c@xxxxxxx>,
gfretwell@xxxxxxx says...
On 13 Jun 2006 21:08:21 +0200, David <david@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

John Larkin wrote:
On Mon, 12 Jun 2006 17:19:01 GMT, mzenier@xxxxxxxxxx (Mark Zenier)
wrote:


Microsoft was a half a dozen guys eating Pizza in Albuquerque, and
IBM was in full "we invent everything we need" mode back when the 8086
was cooked up.
It always seemed to me that both Microsoft and Intel were out of the
mainstream of computing, which is why we wound up locked into the
bizarre, short-sighted kluges we have today. If IBM had picked the 68K
and Digital Research...

John


The IBM engineers wanted the 68k - it was vastly better suited for the
job. But some suit decided the 68k was too expensive, and the 8088 was
cheaper. It didn't matter that it was old-fashioned and a poor design
even when it was made, since they didn't plan on selling more than a few
thousand machines anyway. The original PC was just a marketing
experiment, to help find out what the market really needed - then they
would re-design it with a sensible choice of processor.
The strange thing is IBM had plenty of 68k experience. It was the
engine in a lot of IBM custom built test equipment and the Personal
Terminal (an 80s version of the blackberry) that every field guy
carried was 68k based.
Intel was selected for business reasons, not technical ones, nor
price.

--
Keith

Yes, the "business reasons" being that Motorola wasn't
delivering--and kept slipping--the debut of the 68008. I was designing
an RTU (Remote Terminal Unit) at exactly that time, and was forced to
the 8088--against my will and preference--for the same reason.

James Arthur


Failure to deliver is a valid technical reason - the IBM decision to
pick the 8088 was not for such important reasons.

If that wasn't their reason, it's hard to see why not. If IBM had
gone 68008, our development PC wouldn't have existed. IOW, months
after IBM _shipped_ a finished product, I *still* couldn't get the
Motorola parts, or even a defined release date.

I even tarried a few agonizing months and sketched designs using both
processors, hoping to give Motorola a chance to deliver. At the end of
this period they slipped their delivery schedule (again), then later
slipped yet again. I simply couldn't wait any longer.

A main part of it was
price, but there were probably other "political" reasons too. The
technical guys did not want a 68008 either - they wanted a 68000 with
the full 16-bit databus.

Since the i8086 and MC68000 were both readily available, it seems
fairly obvious that IBM had decided as a company they did NOT want the
full 16-bit bus. I've seen excellent interviews with the original
designers published in various magazines in which they speak for
themselves, so I won't presume to psychoanalyze their motivations.

Cheers,
James Arthur

.

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