hall@ittral.UUCP (Doug Hall) (06/06/85)
The responses have dropped to less than 5 per day on my poll, so I
guess it's time to post some results.
The question asked was: Given the 68000 and the 80286, which processor
do you prefer? Why?
I got some interesting results. Not just the numbers, but the
accompanying comments. But first, the results:
84% prefer the 68000 family
4% prefer the 80*86 family
12% prefer the 32000 family
Now for the reasons:
The Motorola fans like the architecture and the instruction set. Several
people mentioned that they preferred the 68K, but felt that it had
some fairly serious deficiencies. (See net.micro.68K and net.arch for
discussion on this and related subjects.)
The Intel fans like the software support. That seems to be it. There
is a lot of software available for the Intel family. Nobody
particularly liked the architecture, and some said it was a pain to
work with, but they have compilers good enough to hide the ugliness.
National fans seem to like everything about the 32000 line, and most
lamented the lack of available products using these devices.
Miscellaneous comments:
----------------------
There is a very strong "I'd use anything before I'd use Intel" feeling
out there. I got this from about 60% of the respondents. The reasons
were varied, but they all centered around the segmentation issue.
NOBODY likes small segments. Note the word 'small'. Several people said
segmentation would be OK if the segments were bigger, but 64K segments
are right out.
There are a lot of people using Intel stuff who would rather be using
the Motorola parts but have no choice in the matter. And it would seem
that many people equate Intel and IBM; Several people said they'd use
the 68000 if they could but, "how do you escape the IBM mentality?" I
assume they were referring to the workplace and the use of IBM PC's or
compatibles.
There are some STRONG 32000 proponents out there. This chip is
definitely in the running; I didn't even solicit comments on the
National processors, yet 12% said they preferred it.
---
Well, that's about all. As I stated in my original article, this
doesn't prove anything, and it was not a discussion on the relative
merits of one processor over another. I was just curious, and I thank
all the folks who responded. The bottom line seems to be that you
choose the processor that allows you to get the job done, in the time
you have, with the tools you have. Anything else is a poor choice.
Doug Hall
ITT Telecom
Raleigh, NC
...decvax!ittvax!ittral!hall