# Motorola 68000

17 Hacker News commenters recommended Motorola 68000 and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 9 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Praised for its clean, C-friendly programming model and flat 32-bit addressing; critics cite complex addressing modes and slow interrupt response.

## Why people recommend it

- Enjoyable assembly programming model (2 comments): "Motorola did a good job on the programming model, but you can tell that the 68000 is from the 1970s." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46258120)) "Programming 68000 assembly is a joy." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45781464))
- Flat 32-bit memory addressing (2 comments): "Give me a flat 32 bit memory address space any day" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48643242)) "If 32 bit: 68K. Those are miles ahead of the 6502." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46101065))
- Easy to decode, C-friendly (2 comments): "The 68-k ISA, which used 16-bit encodings, was much easier to decode than x86" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47566595)) "I had no problems moving into the very C friendly 68000" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46123853))
- Fast, consistent lead over Intel (2 comments): "Motorola succeeded to have a consistent lead in performance over Intel" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47564031)) "it blew my mind how incredibly fast it was" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47818360))

## What people warn about

- Newer and costlier than 8086 (2 comments): "68000 had major flaw of being newer while 8086 had been available for longer and with second sources" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47565677)) "MC68000 was considered too expensive, while MC6809 was not future-proof" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46815030))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [MOS 6502](https://hackerapproved.com/p/mos-6502.md): 28 recommend
- [Zilog Z80](https://hackerapproved.com/p/zilog-z80.md): 21 recommend
- [NEC V20](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nec-v20.md): 9 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Motorola+MC68000+CPU&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Motorola 68000", https://hackerapproved.com/p/motorola-68000/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).