Re: Future //

["**** ****" <***@***.com>]

Roy,
    I don't want to be mean, and I say this only to save your friend time
and effort. He should give up on the 68060 completely. Motorola still runs
the occasional batch of them, so it is still technically in production, but
volume is so low, it might as well be carved out of gold.
    Now, as far as the 040 is concerned, this is a chip that I would
encourage him to use if he thinks he has reason, it is modern in its own
right, and its not missing much at all that the 060 has. Besides, if he
needs one, and can't find it, I think I have a few to salvage. The 040's,
being used in older macs, show up all over the place, and I'm pretty sure
that at least in the mac, they were socketed to allow for 40slc's of the
full cpu+fpu. He'll never have trouble finding this chip, unless he wants
high volume.
    If he thinks there is any commercial viability though, I'd encourage him
to move on to the PPC now. I understand that it would be much more complex,
at a time that he feels he needs practice with something simpler, but it's
the only sensible approach. I can't quote exact prices, but in any posible
volume, the ppc will cost half as much as the 060, easy. And while he can
salvage the 040 to his heart's content, finding more than 1 or 2 at a time
will be a thankless task.
    Motorola might send him a sample PPC, as far as that goes, as long as he
pretends to be in business. Doubtful that they would for the 060 though.

Thanks,
John Oyler
http://aIIethernet.tripod.com/
jojo4@va.mediaone.net

PS He's gonna have trouble getting the 65816 too. WDC is playing hard to
get.