The Motorola 68000 is a 16/32-bit CISC microprocessor core designed and marketed by Freescale Semiconductor (formerly Motorola Semiconductor Products Sector). Introduced in 1979 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 belonging to the 16-bit hardware technology generation. After twenty-seven years in production, the 68000 architecture is still in use.