I noticed on the datasheets page for Commodore chips there are three names for the chip-facilities at Commodore:

MOS
CBM-MOS
CSG

Is this just the same facility with three different names or was there more than one chip facility?

http://www.6502.org/datasheets/datasheets.htm

_________________
http://www.mts.net/~bbagnall/commodore

As I understand it, Jack Tramiel, president of Commodore, was practically a gangster. In a very unethical scheme, he practically forced MOS to sell out to him for pennies on the dollar. He ramped up demand for calculator ICs, and MOS bought new equipment and hired more people to keep up with the demand. Then suddenly he called them up and said he wouldn't be buying any more, putting MOS in a real bind. Layoffs occurred, and MOS began a downward spiral. Tramiel stepped in and conveniently offered to buy MOS for a low price, and they went for it. They had a huge overstock of the same IC CBM needed but quit buying. The price for the ICs was counted into Tramiel's scheme. When the truth came out, it was too late.

So I expect that it is indeed the same facility, but the earlier parts would say MOS and the later ones would say CSG or CBM or have the Commodore logo.

If there are any computer historians with corrections to make to my post, it won't hurt my feelings any since my info is second-hand.

Garth

Before Jack Trameil entered on the scene, MOS was a semiconductor manufacturer in Norristown, PA. After the aforementioned "buyout", they changed their chip IDs to CBM-MOS in recognition of their new corporate parent. At some later date, the chip ID was changed again to CSG (for "Commodore Semiconductor Group") in full recognition of the ownership.

The semiconductor foundry was located at 950 Rittenhouse Road in Norristown, PA. According to stuff I've read, MOS started at that location in 1970 by leasing the building from Allen-Bradley. Commodore bought the building outright in 1978 and operated it as a chip plant until 1992. After Commodore's demise, the plant management and a group of investors purchased the plant and started GMT Microelectronics (1/95). GMT bit the dust sometime in 2001 I think.

950 Rittenhouse Road is a 14-acre site in the Valley Forge Corporate Center (an industrial park bordered by Rittenhouse Road and Audubon Road) with a checkered past and is a US EPA "Superfund site". This is a link (http://www.epa.gov/reg3hwmd/fr/2003/01/28.htm) into the US EPA Region 3 Web site. Apparently the property was again being sold as late as February 2003.

The source of the EPA (groundwater contamination) problems were related to a 1974 leak in a 250-gallon underground concrete storage tank that was installed adjacent to the southeast side of the building. The concrete tank was used to store a waste solution known to contain trichloroethene ("TCE'') and other solvents including trichloroethane ("TCA''), 1,2 dichloroethene, 1,1 dichloroethene, and 1,1 dichloroethane and vinyl chloride (all industrial solvents used in chipmaking). The congrete tank was decomissioned in 1975 and replaced with an unlined steel one which also subsequently leaked.

The corporate center borders a residential development which until the 1990's used well water. Oops...

Overall it's an ugly post-demise corporate story.

Rich

_________________
Rich Cini
Build Master and maintainer of the Altair32 Emulation project
http://cini.classiccmp.org
http://altair32.classiccmp.org