Thanks for the very good explanation. Stefano
On 7/22/05, Logan Shaw <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Stefano Fornari wrote: > > I am writing an article on Palm development and I would like to reveal > > why 68K programming is called like that. I guess it derives from the > > development based on the Motorola 68000 processor, on which maybe the > > first palm devices where based. > > "68k" is short for "68000". The Motorola 68000 processor came out > some time ago, I think 1980 or 1981. Since then, Motorola has > introduced a number of processors that share the instruction set of > the 68000 or have a superset of its instructions, such as: > > * 68010 - slightly updated version of 68000 with different > privilege modes > * 68020 - expanded instruction set, support for an external MMU > and FPU > * 68030 - further expanded instruction set, internal MMU (I think), > and support for external FPU > * 68040 - similar instruction set to 68030, but much faster; > built-in MMU and FPU > * 68LC040 - low-cost version of 68040, with no MMU and other > features missing, but still pretty fast > * 68060 - the last desktop processor in the series > * 68328 - embedded processor with same instruction set as above, > but designed to be low-power and have lots of supporting > circuitry (memory controller, LCD controller, serial controller, > etc.) built-in to minimize cost, space usage, and power usage > > The 68328 series is what the Palms, starting with the earliest > models and going up through the m515, Tungsten W, and so on, > were based on. As the 68000 series processor family reached a > point where it was no longer competitive on the desktop (after > Macintosh switched from it to PowerPC), Motorola continued to > develop it for embedded applications. The 68000 series has been > strong in this area for decades. Even as far back as 1990, you > could buy a 68010 in a DIP package for a retail cost of less than > $20, and it's a clean 32-bit architecture for which assembly > programming is relatively painless, plus it has lots of tools > support (compilers, etc.) still around from when it was a popular > desktop processor (in the Mac, Sun 3 workstations, Amiga, Atari ST, > and others). > > Here's a bit more information on the 68k family: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/68k > > - Logan > > -- > For information on using the PalmSource Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, > please see http://www.palmos.com/dev/support/forums/ > -- Stefano Fornari - Sync4j Project Manager / Funambol CTO ======================================================= Home: http://www.sync4j.org FAQ: http://sync4j.funambol.com/main.jsp?main=faq Project Documentation: http://forge.objectweb.org/docman/index.php?group_id=96 Documentation site: http://sync4j.funambol.com/main.jsp?main=documentation List archives: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Sync4j (login required) http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum_id=215 Wiki: http://wiki.objectweb.org/sync4j/ Sync4j - The open source SyncML mobile application platform -- For information on using the PalmSource Developer Forums, or to unsubscribe, please see http://www.palmos.com/dev/support/forums/
