Editing Motorola 68000 (section)

===Moving to 16-bit===
By the time the 6800 was introduced, a small number of 16-bit designs had come to market. These were generally modeled on [[minicomputer]] platforms like the [[Data General Nova]] or [[PDP-11]]. Based on the [[semiconductor manufacturing]] processes of the era, these were often multi-chip solutions like the [[National Semiconductor]] [[IMP-16]], or the single-chip [[National Semiconductor PACE|PACE]] that had issues with speed.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HljLwCWYERQC&pg=PA336|title=Encyclopedia of Microcomputers – Evolution of Computerized Maintenance Management to Generation of Random Numbers|last1=Kent|first1=Allen|author1-link=Allen Kent|last2=Williams|first2=James G.|publisher=[[Marcel Dekker]]|date=1991|access-date=2022-07-29|volume=7|page=336|isbn=0-8247-2706-1|archive-date=July 29, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220729234026/https://books.google.com/books?id=HljLwCWYERQC&pg=PA336|url-status=live}}</ref>

With the sales prospects for the 6800 dimming, but still cash-flush from the engine control sales, in late 1976 Colin Crook, Operations Manager, began considering how to successfully win future sales. They were aware that [[Intel]] was working on a 16-bit extension of their [[Intel 8080|8080]] series, which would emerge as the [[Intel 8086]], and had heard rumors of a 16-bit [[Zilog Z80]], which became the [[Zilog Z8000|Z8000]]. These would use new design techniques that would eliminate the problems seen in earlier 16-bit systems.{{sfn|Oral|2007|p=5}}

Motorola knew that if they launched a product similar to the 8086, within 10% of its capabilities, Intel would outperform them in the market. In order to compete, they set themselves the goal of being two times as powerful at the same cost, or one-half the cost with the same performance. Crook decided that they would attack the high-end of the market with the most powerful processor on the market.{{sfn|Oral|2007|p=5}} Another 16-bit would not do, their design would have to be bigger, and that meant having some 32-bit features.{{sfn|Oral|2007|p=9}} Crook had decided on this approach by the end of 1976.{{sfn|Oral|2007|p=5}}