| Motorola*
Divides and Conquers |
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| EXCERPT FROM "Integration, Diversification Key for 1998",
Microprocessor Report, 1/25/99 |
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The deathless 68K retained its embedded volume crown, with 83 million 680x0, 683xx, and ColdFire® chips in 1998, up just 5% from the previous year.
The ColdFire subspecies evolved steadily in 1998, with new chips shipping and the v4 microarchitectural changes announced, including branch prediction and fixed-point fractional-numeric support. This is probably as close as ColdFire will come to a true floating-point unit for some years, to prevent cannibalization of 68040 and '060 sales.
For integer work, the whole ColdFire family is a bargain, with a measure of 68K compatibility thrown in for good measure. (Motorola* finally granted ColdFire the binary compatibility many potential users assumed it already had, through a 68K emulation library.) The 5307, in particular, offers a core set of peripherals and a sizable cache, coupled with the fastest ColdFire CPU to date, all for about $15. This valuable combination earns Motorola's ColdFire 5307 the Editor's Choice award for best integrated processor. |
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*The Semiconductor Products Sector of Motorola, Inc. became NXP® Semiconductors, Inc., in 2004. |
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