68k was good, but with extreme flaws, and late. This was enough so Intel become first. Most annoying flaws: sophisticated memory interface and very limited old

68k was good, but with extreme flaws, and late. This was enough so Intel become first. Most annoying flaws: sophisticated memory interface and very limited old companion chips (from 6800 family), and for original 68k need second CPU to make virtual memory. So what happen? - When appear first 8086/88 and 68k, RAM was small in all machines, but 8086 was simpler and 8086 system was cheaper, and near same speed. Then appear 286, which was improved 8086 with much better speed and bigger possible RAM, but Motorola answer with 68010, just fixes flaws, this was good, but not enough in race. Fortunately for Motorola, 286 was not fully compatible with 8086, some programs need to be modified, but many old programs from 68k family also does not work on 68020, so this was good time to think, why bother too much about compatibility, if it is not achievable. To be honest, on PC I first seen real compatibility, most programs run without any modifications on 8086/8088/80286/80386/80486, just on each iteration faster. First really significant issues with compatibility on x86 appear on Pentium, as I remember, Pentium-Pro was first Intels microarchitecture on which 16-bit programs was slower then on previous Intel CPUs. But all these facts was future when was first competition of 8086 and 68k, and nobody could be sure about Intel future before 80386, even many people think 80286 is unfortunate CPU. So I think, if Motorola made simplified 68k with fixed flaws (to be cheaper and may be to integrate more on CPU chip), it was really possible to gain momentum and overcome Intel on PC market. Unfortunately, Motorola decide to make 68020/68030, semi-compatible with 68k, but not cheap enough, and stay second in race. May be this because Motorola that time have good sales in military, so they don't bother about future. And after 80386 for Motorola time was lost forever. PowerPC was totally another history.