The 68008 was a very-cut down version of Motorola's 16/32-bit 68000 - itself not quite a 32-bit processor as it already was limited by having a 16-bit data bus.

The '08 took this one step further by shipping with only an 8-bit bus, which made it a lot cheaper to build around, as support chips only needed to be 8-bit, but which made it slow, as each data read required four fetches.

Few micros used the 68008, but it did appear in Sinclair's ill-fated QL. This machine was so delayed that by the time it was about to come out the price of the real 68000 had dropped to around the same as the 68008, however by now Sinclair was committed to releasing and could not wait any longer for a re-design.