> I actually did mean 86XX

Okay. To relate to the point what Freescale thinks the target market for the e600 based MPC86xx has been, we shouldn't forget that the MPC74xx has always been used also in the embedded area, not only as CPU for Apple. So we can assume that the target market for the MPC86xx, which is the MPC74xx's successor, stayed the same. But let's not just assume, but rather see what Freescale says:

MPC8610:
"Robotic vision and navigation; Aerospace/defense display, control and image processing; Kiosks with image processing; Multi-function printers and scanners; Single-Board Computers"

MPC8640(D):
"embedded networking, telecom, aerospace and defense, storage, industrial and pervasive computing applications"

> as they are still available after Apple's departure

Actually, they started being available only after that. The first one of the series, the MPC8641(D), was announced in 2004, i.e. before Apple's switch announcement, but began sampling only in 2006.

> but are now somewhat pointless with the introduction of the P5

I wouldn't say so. The markets the MPC74xx and later the MPC86xx have been aimed at heavily rely on the capability of AltiVec code execution (or SIMD processing in general, with AltiVec being preferred for code reuse reasons). That's why the current QorIQ P series is not considered an adequate MPC86xx replacement by customers from those industries, albeit Freescale wishing it would. To compensate for that and not lose too many customers to Intel and its SSE and AVX capable processors, Freescale did what you know they did: announce the availability of AltiVec for future QorIQ processors. They wouldn't have done that if they had been able to avoid it. As soon as QorIQ with AltiVec will be there, MPC86xx will be rather pointless, yes. But so far, if you want AltiVec then MPC86xx is a viable option. More there:

https://morph.zone/modules/newbb_plus/viewtopic.php?forum=3&topic_id=7001&start=455

> I've rarely seen the X700 cored products

It's e700 ;-)

> refereed to as MPC87xxs (although that is what they would
> have likely been called).

Likely? 'MPC87xx' is the moniker Freescale used to refer to the e700 core based processors in their presentations and roadmap depictions. Just explore the documents linked from those Google results:

http://www.google.com/search?q=%22mpc87xx%22+freescale
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22mpc87xx%22+%22e700%22

There's even still one PDF file online on the Freescale website (page 6):
http://www.freescale.com/files/community_files/MCUCOMM/1033_e300_e500_e600_comp.pdf

Unfortunately, most of the old Freescale documents mentioning the MPC87xx are not online anymore and thus not indexed by Google anymore. (But don't be confused by some of the results as it seems there was an 'MPC87xx' already on Motorola's 2001/2002 roadmaps, but that was another thing altogether.)

> Were there any real details (let alone prices)?

I'm only aware of the details I listed in my previous posting. And as I said, I don't think there were any prices mentioned.