[tralarpa]

> I have to assume they reached that solution after exhausting every other option

I assume that the 68000 was so powerful for its price (probably much cheaper than the existing mainframe CPUs) that it made this a viable solution. Or maybe the company had promised their customers a 68k-based Unix system (with the 68451 MMU) and the 68010 was delayed or too expensive and they had to find a quick solution? (I have no idea)

Btw, I was probably wrong about Sun being the company behind this. Apollo and MassComp have been mentioned in mailing lists.

[jandrese]

IIRC they cost around $350 each back in the 80s. That's roughly $1000 in today's dollars.

A lot of companies wanted to use them instead of the Mickey Mouse Intel chips of the day, but the price point was too severe.