[comp.unix.xenix] INTEL -vs- MOTOROLA

jeffh@weycord.WEYCO.COM (08/01/88)

Ya know, I've been playing around with the 386 instruction set and
frankly- IT SUCKS! The MC680xx instruction set is far better than 
this INTEL bullshit! I guess I didn't realize how easy 16 general
purpose registers are to use.

I cannot beleive that INTEL chips made it as far as they have! Give
me a break- does anyone at INTEL understand micro-processor design
or has IBM stuck it to us once again?

Well, I sure hope someone out there can give me a reason why INTEL
is even in business.

DISCLAIMER- I sure do think it's true; but, I could
	    be wrong!
--

Jeff (Spectra Software) Harrell
hpubvwa!weycord!jeffh
(206) 927-9268

davidsen@steinmetz.ge.com (William E. Davidsen Jr) (08/04/88)

In article <5530007@weycord.WEYCO.COM> jeffh@weycord.WEYCO.COM writes:
| Ya know, I've been playing around with the 386 instruction set and
| frankly- IT SUCKS! The MC680xx instruction set is far better than 
| this INTEL bullshit! I guess I didn't realize how easy 16 general
| purpose registers are to use.

  About every four months someone decides that God gave him/her a vision
about Intel vs. Motorola, and a mandate to tell everyone about it.

| Well, I sure hope someone out there can give me a reason why INTEL
| is even in business.

Several:
  a) most of us run applications, we don't type the opcodes in by hand,
or even program in assembler much any more. ie. we don't care about the
instruction set, just the cost of getting the job done, in money and
time.

  b) one of the side effects of the Intel instruction set is that about
50% of the codes (register to register moves and operations, and short
junps) are 1 byte smaller than the Motorola set. Therefore compilers are
easier for the Motorola i/s, code is smaller for the Intel i/s. Smaller
code uses less disk, loads faster, keeps more instructions in cache,
etc.

Other comments:
  a) most of us have been able to make our own decisions for a while
now, and didn't ask for your opinion.

  b) this has been beaten to death before.

  c) The only orthogonal i/s is the NS32xxx series, none of these
address and arithmetic things, any register for any reason!

  d) I doubt that ten people on the entire net give a rat's ass what you
think about this (maybe about anything).

  e) this discussion will die in about five weeks.

  f) Why post this to the xenix group in the first place? Since Xenix
runs on Intel and Motorola, what was your purpose, other than you
thought we were all so dumb that we hadn't noticed that the two i/s are
diferent.

  g) to prove your importance and wit you will probably reply to this on
the net, complaining about each point, and criticising the indentation,
grammar, and spelling when you can't find some way to misunderstand what
I said and then disagree. See {d}.

-- 
	bill davidsen		(wedu@ge-crd.arpa)
  {uunet | philabs | seismo}!steinmetz!crdos1!davidsen
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me