3rd Generation Microprocessor

A third generation family of 8-bit microprocessors faster than the 6800 or the 8080, but compatible with the 6800, has been announced by MOS Technology. According to Chuck Peddle, marketing director for microcomputers, MOS Technology designed the entire family to be sensibly priced while giving the user a high performance microprocessor system,

The family's first entries are the MCS6501 and the MCS6502.

Both are N-channel, silicon-gate, depletion load, 5V devices compatible with the Motorola and AMI 6800. They will be offered for delivery in September at single unit prices of $20 with production orders priced substantially less.

Future software compatible versions of various pin configurations will range from very low cost devices to very high performance 16-bit competitive products .

The MCS6501 microprocessor uses an external two phase clock, is a plug-in replacement for the 6800 and can address up to 65K memory. The MCS6502 has an on-chip clock, external single phase input, RC time base input, and a crystal time base input. Both microprocessors are available in 40-pin packages and are currently being sampled by selected accounts . A cross assembler and emulator is also available on national timeshare services .

MOS Technology says they will demonstrate their microprocessors and software, and display their full line of documentation at the McArthur suite in the St. Francis Hotel during WESCON. Both devices and the software will be available for purchase and delivery at that time.

Other members of the 650X family will include combinations of RAM, ROM and I/O as well as versions of current peripheral devices , and a full range of memory products .

The microprocessors will be second sourced by Synertek. The companies have entered a verbal agreement in which MOS Technology will provide Synertek with masks for all 650X microprocessors and Synertek will provide MOS Technology with masks for their 2101, 2102, 2111 and 2112 RAMs. Synertek expects to have samples of the microprocessors in September.

Although the architecture of the MCS650X family is based around the PDP 11, several architectural innovations have made this microprocessor the first of a third generation. These include significantly expanded addressing capability, including two real index registers (not available on any other micro), two powerful forms of indirect addressing, an 8080-type Ready, fast decimal arithmetic (including subtract), and pipelining for higher thruput. According to AH Systems' benchmark tests at 1MHz, the 6501 outperforms all competitive 8-bit machines.

Hardware features of the 6500 microprocessor family include an accumulator, two output buffers, data buffer, a high and a low program counter, two real index registers, stack pointer, instruction register, condition code register, ALU, and all instruction decode and control circuitry. The 6501 adder can perform both binary and decimal arithmetic operations.

There are 55 commands in the 6501 instruction set and eleven addressing modes: accumulator , immediate , absolute , zero page , indexed zero page, indexed absolute, implied, indexed indirect, indirect indexed, absolute indirect and relative.

MOS Technology demonstrated their newly announced 8-bit microprocessor priced at $20 in single unit quantities. The family includes the 6501 and 6502 microprocessors which are pin compatible with the M6800.

Motorola Sues MOS Technology

Motorola is seeking an injunction against MOS Technology to halt the manufacture, marketing and filling of orders for MCS 6500 microprocessor products. The injunction action is intended to stop MOS Technology from further 6500 activities until the outcome of a pending trial of a suit filed in Federal Court in Philadelphia PA by Motorola. As of yet, the injunction attempts have been unsuccessful.

Motorola, citing several Motorola patents that led to the development of its own MC6800 microprocessor, alleges that seven former employees of Motorola (Charles J. Peddle, Rodney H. Orgill, William D. Mensch, Wilbur L. Mattys, Terry N. Holdt, Ernie B. Hirt, and Harry E. Bawcom) left Motorola and joined MOS Technology in similar posts and helped establish that firm's line of MCS6500 microprocessors.

The suit seeks triple damages plus all profits MOS Technology has made on the 6500 product line. MOS Technology has denied the allegations and stated that Motorola's claims are unfounded.

Financial
COMMODORE TO ACQUIRE MOS TECH.
Commodore International Ltd. has reached an agreement in principle to acquire MOS Technology. MOS Technology is to become a subsidiary of Commodore and will remain a separate profit center. Officials state that no management changes are anticipated. The company will remain at its present site in Valley Forge, PA.

Reasons cited for the proposed sale included MOS Technology's recent patent infringement suit with Motorola and the withdrawal of a 6800-pin compatible microprocessor. Also noted, the sale guarantees MOS Technology's survival and gives the firm necessary resources to exploit their microprocessor product line.

so if they had a yield crash, as they sometimes did, they'd be unable to make product for weeks or months. Yield crashes could be caused by contamination in the plant, in the chemicals, in the water.

As for Apple buying 6502s from Commodore, did that ever happen? Does anyone have any pictures of Apple II computers with MOS chips in them (that are not replacements that were done by the owner)? I would expect that if Apple (or any other competitor for that matter) would order 6502s or other chips from Commodore, Tramiel would take their money and let them wait forever or at least until after Christmas) for their order to go on the truck ("business is war" after all). I also think Steve Jobs would be smart enough to understand that, so he probably wouldn't even try ordering chips from Commodore; he'd probably get his chips from Synertek or Rockwell. Without those second sources, the 6502 would not be what it is today.

It's blatantly obvious that Tramiel was no dummy. And I've never seen any evidence that despite his antics, that he wasn't a stand-up guy. I've never seen a MOS chip in an Apple, but I would surmise that was because Apple didn't want to buy from Commodore, not because Commodore didn't want to sell to Apple.

But it's a known fact that Woz bought one of the 6502's from Chuck Peddle's wife in the hotel room at Wescon in 1975 (the famous jars full of working 6502's on top of non-working ones), and put it into the Apple 1 which he had already designed for the 6800. So Woz was probably a fan of MOS, Jobs probably not so much, but that's just my speculation