u586182058ea@deneb.ucdavis.edu (0040;0000009104;0;340;143;) (06/12/89)
>I need some info. >A friend of mine is accusing me of being on the Dark Side of the Force, because >I am a Motorola fan (Strictly Amiga :-) and he claims that the Side of Light >and Honor is the Great Intel. So could all you Jedi's out there help me out? > >John Sparks | {rutgers|uunet}!ukma!corpane!sparks | D.I.S.K. 24hrs 1200bps >||||||||||||||| sparks@corpane.UUCP | 502/968-5401 thru -5406 The average Intel instruction takes less cycles than the Motorola counter part. Overall, it appears to me that the Intel is more efficient. I don't have any figures to back me up on that, but I believe it to be true. There is a tradeoff for Intel's efficiency. They do a lot of things ass backwards. Most programmers with brains would prefer 68000 assembler over 8xxxx any day. For example, the move instruction in Intel assembly is backwords, and the data stored in memory is backwards (high byte first). While this makes operations slightly faster, it sure is a pain for straight thinking programmers. Sure, you can get used to it, but people living in Russia get used to an oppresive communist governement too, so that's no excuse. Also, the Intel is nonorthogonal, which means that a lot of operations that you think should be there aren't (I'd look it up for you in the book right now and give you some examples, but it's an evil book and I'm afraid I'll be corrupted by the dark side merely by opening it!). Almost every programmer I've ever talked to would rather program the 68000 than the Intel any day. The Motorola is straight forward and friendly, while the Intel is warped and twisted. Besides, IBM picked Intel over Motorola, so that should tell you something. The only reason I could see why any one would bother choosing Intel over Motorola is because IBM's are as prevalent as the plague was during the dark ages. It has been statistically proven that Intel programmers are more insane than 68000 programmers. Motorola is good. Intel BAD! The dark side is Intel! I don't know who your friend is, but I suspect he's Darth Vader.