Motorola 68000
Microprocessor / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Motorola 68000?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
The Motorola 68000 (sometimes shortened to Motorola 68k or m68k and usually pronounced "sixty-eight-thousand")[2][3] is a 16/32-bit complex instruction set computer (CISC) microprocessor, introduced in 1979 by Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector.
| Designer | Motorola |
|---|---|
| Bits | 16/32-bit |
| Introduced | 1979; 45 years ago (1979) |
| Design | CISC |
| Branching | Condition code |
| Endianness | Big |
| Registers | |
| |
| General information | |
|---|---|
| Launched | 1979 |
| Discontinued | June 1, 1996; 27 years ago (1996-06-01) |
| Designed by | Motorola |
| Performance | |
| Max. CPU clock rate | 4 MHz to 16.67 MHz |
| Data width | 16 bits |
| Address width | 24 bits |
| Architecture and classification | |
| Instruction set | Motorola 68000 series |
| Physical specifications | |
| Transistors |
|
| Package(s) |
|
| History | |
| Successor(s) | Motorola 68010 |
The design implements a 32-bit instruction set, with 32-bit registers and a 16-bit internal data bus.[4] The address bus is 24 bits and does not use memory segmentation, which made it easier to program for. Internally, it uses a 16-bit data arithmetic logic unit (ALU) and two more 16-bit ALUs used mostly for addresses,[4] and has a 16-bit external data bus.[5] For this reason, Motorola termed it a 16/32-bit processor.
As one of the first widely available processors with a 32-bit instruction set, large unsegmented address space, and relatively high speed for the era, the 68k was a popular design through the 1980s. It was widely used in a new generation of personal computers with graphical user interfaces, including the Macintosh 128K, Commodore Amiga, Atari ST, and Sharp X68000. The 1988 Sega Genesis/Mega Drive console is powered by a 68000.
Later processors in the Motorola 68000 series, beginning with the Motorola 68020, use full 32-bit ALUs and have full 32-bit address and data buses, speeding up 32-bit operations and allowing full 32-bit addressing rather than the 24-bit addressing of the 68000 and Motorola 68010 or the 31-bit addressing of the Motorola 68012. The original 68k is generally software forward-compatible with the rest of the line despite being limited to a 16-bit wide external bus.[4]
After 45 years in production, the 68000 architecture is still in use.[6][7]