Motorola Unveils 68030
New York -- October 29, 1987 -- PRN -- Motorola unveiled its newest 32-bit microprocessor, the 68030 (030), at a news conference here today with top executives from Apple Computer, NCR, Northern Telecom, Sun Microsystems and Unisys on hand to endorse the evolving 68000 line of microprocessors.
Motorola has completed six months of evaluation sampling with key customers and is now accepting orders for the second generation 030 with a top speed of 20 MHz. The company also disclosed today that an even faster 25 MHz version will be available for sampling in December, 1987.
The 030 provides twice the performance of the most powerful and widely used 32-bit chip, Motorola's 68020 (020), and competing processors such as Intel Corp.'s 80386. It is expected to be adopted into hundreds of systems that are based on the 020 chip.
The 030 is the first to have on-chip data and instruction caches, parallel (Harvard-style) architecture and dual modes of address. According to Motorola, these advanced features will enable system manufacturers to offer complete 32-bit computer systems with prices as low as $2,000.
Motorola also announced today the early development of a third-generation 32-bit microprocessor, called the 68040 (040), signaling customers that the 68000 microprocessor line will continue to increase in performance with total family compatibility. Motorola has not released specifications, pricing or a production schedule for the 040.
In tandem with the shipment of the 030, Motorola said that the 68882 (882), the company's second-generation 32-bit floating point math co-processor, will begin shipment to customers, offering them two to four times the performance of the earlier generation 68881 (881) math co-processor. Such chips are used to speed the rate of mathematical calculations in operations ranging from spreadsheet tabulations to mechanical drawing.
The 030 is a fully compatible member of Motorola's M68000 family, which includes today's standard, the 68020 (020) chip. Hundreds of manufacturers currently offer 020-based products. It is the leading 32-bit microprocessor in multiuser business systems, technical workstations, telecommunications, multiprocessing systems, robotics and industrial control. Products based on the 68000-family of microprocessors include business computers from Apple, NCR and Unisys; laser printers from Apple, Canon and Ricoh; and engineering workstations from Sun Microsystems and Apollo Computer.
A second briefing for press and industry analysts on these announcements will be held Friday, Oct. 30, in Santa Clara, Calif., at the Santa Clara Tech Mart. A luncheon and systems demonstrations at noon will precede the briefing, scheduled for 1 p.m.
CONTACT -- Alan Kelly, 408-982-0400, or Dean Mosley, 512-440-2839, both for Motorola
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