Re: [EVEN MORE OFFTOPIC] Re: [?] Why should Distros be called as i386 for a 32-bit PC, and as amd64 for a 64-bit PC, when Intel Core PCs are also 64bit systems

[Joe <joe@jretrading.com>]

On Mon, 15 Mar 2021 12:34:42 +0100
Sven Hartge <sven@svenhartge.de> wrote:

> tomas@tuxteam.de wrote:
> > On Mon, Mar 15, 2021 at 11:09:35AM +0100, Sven Hartge wrote:  
> 
> >> Another rumor I read was that IBM, when developing the first IBM PC
> >> in 1980, opted to use the 8086/8088 CPU instead of the also
> >> availble M68k CPU because the Intel one was less powerful so it
> >> would not be in competition with the mainframes the PC was
> >> supposed to interface with primarily.  
> 
> > Too lazy to research now, but it sounds credible, yes.  
> 
> >> If this rumor is true and IBM had acted differently, the PC
> >> ecosystem today would also look quite differently.  
> 
> > Or the Z8000. Absolutely. 8086 was, architecturally, the worst
> > possible choice at that time.  
> 
> Having had a 68k would have been awesome. No stupid memory
> segmentation, 32bit instructions and internal address size, 24bit
> external address size.
> 
> Imagine a PC with 4GB adressable memory space in 1980.
> 
>
I can. It would have cost as much as a mainframe to make full use of it.

-- 
Joe