6502 vs 68000

From: Paul R. Santa-Maria <paul_at_orchard.wccnet.org>
Date: Sun Aug 19 15:07:33 2001

> Date: Sun, 19 Aug 2001 07:26:19 -0600
> From: "Richard Erlacher" <edick_at_idcomm.com>
> Subject: Re: SemiOT: Mourning for Classic Computing
>
> There are lots of things one CPU could do more simply than another,
> but, normally, there were others that went the other way. I remember,
> back in '80 or so, demonstrating that the 4 MHz 6502 was considerably
> faster and more code efficient than the 8 MHz 68000. This was, of
> course, because the 8 MHz 68K had to fetch two words just to get its
> opcode, though it didn't take long to execute it once the opcode and
> operands were in place.

In 1980, most 8-bit CPUs were more efficient that the 68000 in terms of
code size as long as you limited yourself to 64K. When you got past 64K,
the 68000 scaled smoothly while programming the 8-bitters became a Chinese
fire drill.

Paul R. Santa-Maria
Monroe, Michigan USA
Received on Sun Aug 19 2001 - 15:07:33 BST