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Worth mentioning the 6501 which was launched by MOS Technology alongside the 6502 and was pin-compatible with the 6800. Motorola sued alleging patent infringem
by klelatti 4y ago
Worth mentioning the 6501 which was launched by MOS Technology alongside the 6502 and was pin-compatible with the 6800.
Motorola sued alleging patent infringement and misappropriation of trade secrets.
MOS Technology settled, paid Motorola $200,000 and dropped the 6501.
- dylan604 4y ago$200k sounds like such a small number, but it was the dropping of the offending chip that was the gotcha.
- kjs3 4y agoWell...200k in 1975 $'s. And MOS was a startup, basically. So not a trivial amount. But yeah, a big part of the initial pitch was "you can use your same hardware design but replace the $300 CPU with our $25 CPU".
- mark-r 4y agoI knew a guy who tried to build a multi processor system with 16 6800s. Made a mistake with the power supply and ended up frying all of them.
- kjs3 4y agoThat's seriously ambitious (tips hat). There were a number of folks that came up with dual processor designs back in those days playing on the observation that most 8-bitters (and many 16- and 32-bitters) could never utilize more than 50% of the available memory bandwidth. There's an NS32000 application note somewhere that describes such a design, and NS had datasheets for an NS32132 that was an NS32032 with added some support for such a system. I dunno if the NS32132 ever shipped, however.
- deaddodo 4y agoThere was also an argument that the 6501 was built as a sacrificial lamb so that when Motorola inevitably sued them, they would be able to keep the 6502 out of the case.
- kjs3 4y agoDo you have a source for this? I had always read the change in pin-out was initiated after Motorola went legal.
- deaddodo 4y agoThe 6501 and 6502 were developed simultaneously and the 6502 was released a month later (Aug 1975 vs Sept 1975). Both well before the lawsuit began, yet alone concluded.