> You'd assume that e500s would be more or less identical except for clock speed.

Actually, both e500v2 and e500mc reach up to 1.5 GHz. It's only the QorIQ chips where e500v2 maxes out at 1.2 GHz. In the PowerQUICC III the e500v2 core reaches up to 1.5 GHz.

> You actually have to go over the specs to realize its not another e500v2.

Unfortunately, I slightly misremembered what my misconception prior to February 2009 actually was. I said that I had thought all QorIQ chips were to be based on e500v2. But that is not true. I actually knew from the start about the e500mc and which QorIQ chips were to be based on that core instead of the e500v2. What I wasn't aware of back then is that the e500mc got a proper FPU which the e500v2 misses. Instead, I believed the only advantage of the e500mc over the e500v2 to be that more than just two of them could be connected to form multicore chips (e500v2 can be used only for single or dual-core).

> at about the time plans for the e700 were dropped

You actually know when that was? I ask because I don't have a clue, and public information on that are conflicting.

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=6196&forum=11&post_id=72301#72301
https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?topic_id=7001&forum=3&post_id=74210#74210