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I too suspect they could have - but even if they could have, it wasn’t at all clear that it would’ve been the right thing to do. Even for Intel I don’t think it
by wk_end 3y ago
I too suspect they could have - but even if they could have, it wasn’t at all clear that it would’ve been the right thing to do. Even for Intel I don’t think it was clear for a while that their gambit was going to pay off and bury RISC (or Itanium), and there was much less incentive for Motorola to maintain backwards compatibility. A clean design that was faster - and easier to make faster - must’ve seemed like a sure bet at the time.
- mixmastamyk 3y agoIntel had so much money to burn they tried at least three different strategies and the market chose the winner. Compatible with Pentium, RISC with i860, and clean-slate with Itanium are those that come to mind. Each of those projects undoubtedly cost billions. An incredibly luxurious position to be in.