abstract:The Motorola 68000 ("'sixty-eight-thousand'"; also called the Motorola 68k, "sixty-eight-kay") is a 16/32-bit CISC microprocessor core designed and marketed by Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector (now Freescale Semiconductor). Introduced in 1979 with HMOS technology as the first member of the successful 32-bit m68k family of microprocessors, it is generally software forward compatible with the rest of the line despite being limited to a 16-bit wide external bus.