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To show the MOS 6502 without the Commodore 64 is a HUGE oversight. The C64 was the most prolific computer of the 80's. Thank you Chuck Peddle for the 6502. T
by lasermike026 13y ago
To show the MOS 6502 without the Commodore 64 is a HUGE oversight. The C64 was the most prolific computer of the 80's. Thank you Chuck Peddle for the 6502. Thank you Bob Russell and Bob Yannes for the C64. Jack Tramiel, thank you for providing computers for the masses not the classes.
- danmaz74 13y agoYes, it's incredible how the Apple myth is really rewriting the early history of computers in people's minds. By the way, the C64 was not just the most prolific computer of the 80s - it remains the most sold computer model in history.
- colomon 13y agoI was a C64 kid all the way, but the Apple II was released four or five years earlier than the C64. It very definitely blazed the way for the C64, and arguably deserves the place of honor in the list; I don't think the C64 would have been what it was without Apple going first. (Leaving C64 totally off the 6502 list is a travesty, though.)
- danmaz74 13y agoBut the Commodore PET was released the same year of the Apple II, and outsold it during the first years. The myth is that there was only the Apple II, and everyone else copied it - that's definitely not true.
- colomon 13y agoThe C64 was very clearly Commodore's attempt to use its technology to make an Apple II-style home computer. Oh! I just checked on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_PET#Origins_and_the_early_models http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_PET#Origins_and_the_e... and here's something I didn't know: "In September 1976 Peddle got a demonstration of Jobs and Wozniak's Apple II prototype, when Jobs was offering to sell it to Commodore, but Commodore considered Jobs' offer too expensive." So it turns out even the PET was at least somewhat inspired by the Apple II. Like I said, I loved my C64. But I remember when it came out, and everyone understood it was Commodore's answer to the Apple II. A very successful answer, mind you!
- danmaz74 13y agoThis is funny. Chuck Peddle had designed the first microcomputer design around the MOS 6502 - that's the MOS Technology KIM-1 (1975), which was a reference board and was sold as a kit. The Apple I was mostly inspired by that - which is normal, considering that it was the reference board. I seriously doubt that Peddle needed much inspiration from Apple for the PET.
- huxley 13y agoI think that's pretty much out of date, as far as I can find only a total 17 million Commodore 64s were ever sold (even the most unrealistic estimates put it at 30 million), Apple sells about 15 million iPads per quarter, with models being sold for about a year. source: http://www.c64-wiki.com/index.php/Commodore#Sales_numbers_.28End_1993.29 http://www.c64-wiki.com/index.php/Commodore#Sales_numbers_.2...
- danmaz74 13y agoYour data is most likely correct, but would you really classify the ipad as a "personal computer"?
- mikestew 13y agoConsidering that an iPad can do everything that (as I recall) a C64 could do, yes. The exception of writing and executing user-entered code could be called out, but I don't view that as a requirement of a "personal computer" but rather a "general-purpose computer". Oh, sure, we geeks think they're the same thing. But most users of C64s that I knew didn't, at least judging from how they used their machines (i. e., not writing code).
- danmaz74 13y agoSo, would you also classify the iphone as a PC?
- InclinedPlane 13y agoOf course. Why wouldn't you?
- danmaz74 13y agoBecause this way the term "PC" become meaningless... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorites_paradox http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sorites_paradox
- georgemcbay 13y agoTechnically the C64 had a 6510 in it, though of course the 6510 was essentially just a 6502 plus an extra I/O port and you're right that they really should have mentioned it somewhere in the "variants" section of the 6502 writeup.
- tluyben2 13y agoI was very surprised to see the Apple here as well; sure nice but surely the C64 was far more important.
- Someone 13y agoI think they are correct in stating that the Apple 2 was the breakthrough application of the 6502. The C64 was a tsunami, but it came after the breakthrough. That's also why they list the Mac for the 68000, not the Atari 400 or the Amiga, the Archimedes for ARM, even though it got way more popular later, and the Altair for the 8080 even though that probably sold less than even today's greatest flop. I do find it weird that all the most influential microprocessors happened to have their breakthrough in a PC. Surely, there were influential embedded CPUs? For example, where's the 8051?
- InclinedPlane 13y agoThere's a really neat talk on reverse engineering the 6502: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5miMbqYB4E http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5miMbqYB4E It's pretty long but well worth a listen, there's some really fascinating stuff in it.
- danellis 13y agoTo show it without a BBC Micro seems like a huge oversight, too. The Beeb was hugely influential in the UK in the 1980s -- every school had them.