Used interrupts on both 68k & PIC, want 68k w/onboard memory & JTAG/BDM

The strange thing is that C became so common and not PLM-86.

A few years earlier, most 8-bitters were programmed in assembler, but Intel marketed the PLM-80 to mask the ugly 8080 architecture. PLM-80 was used quite a lot in those days.

Paul

People have used C on the 68k for about as long as there has been C (68k cpus were a popular choice for early unix workstations such as Sun's first machines, unlike x86 which only gained serious *nix popularity with Linux. It was also the original target for gcc). Writing a C compiler for the 68k is peanuts compared to writing one for the x86, since the 68k has a wide set of mostly orthogonal registers, plenty of address registers, and addressing modes ideal for C. Getting the best out of an x86 device is a black art, and it was a long time before C compilers could compete with professional x86 assembler programmers. So I expect most serious x86 development was still being done in assembly long after C (and other high level languages) were standard on the 68k (the Mac OS being a notable exception, written mostly in assembly for some reason).

The legacy of assembly on the x86 is one of the reasons why the instruction set is so hideous - it has had to keep 100% binary compatibility because you can't just recompile your assembly code for a new architecture. The 68k architecture, on the other hand, has seen many binary incompatible changes (such as the removal of rarer addressing modes) to improve efficiency.