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$200k sounds like such a small number, but it was the dropping of the offending chip that was the gotcha.



Well...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".


I 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.


That'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.


There 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.


Do you have a source for this? I had always read the change in pin-out was initiated after Motorola went legal.


The 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.




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