Re: Commodore and Apple

[Roger Johnstone <rojaws@orcon.net.nz>]

In <pan.2005.03.06.08.14.00.757648@someisp.se> Niklas Ramsberg  wrote:
> On Sat, 05 Mar 2005 15:13:46 -0700, White Flame (aka David Holz) wrote:
> 
>> Well, if the show "Pirates of Silicon Valley" is to be believed (Woz
>> himself says it's quite accurate about the history of Apple), he was
>> building a self-made computer for a hobby, and along with Jobs, 
>> started building & selling them to computer user clubs & mail order 
>> after everybody started drooling over them, eventually turning into a 
>> business more reputable than selling phreaking equipment. ;)  I doubt 
>> that during the development of the original Apple that they were 
>> anybody that a chip manufacturer would approach about using their 
>> chips.  However, it does seem sensible that hackers soldering 
>> together computers in their bedroom would be reading up on the CPU 
>> industry and desire to use the latest, most interesting, and 
>> affordable chips.
> 
> That's more or less the same story Steven Levy presents in the book
> Hackers - Heroes of the Computer Revolution; he says that Woz, after
> complaining about the cost of hardware, was given a box of parts which
> would would work with a Motorola 6800 processor. He started designing 
> the computer (which would become the Apple I) and then went to the 
> Wescon computer show where he "went by the MOS Technology booth and 
> found that they were selling early models of their new microprocessor 
> chip, the 6502, for only twenty dollars. Since the chip wasn't much 
> different from the Motorola 6800, he bought a handful, and decided 
> that the 6502 would be the heart of his new machine." Other processors 
> like the 6800 or 8080 were much more expensive.

Woz left it open for the owners to change to a 6800 if they wanted 
though. There's a small unpopulated area on the Apple 1 board marked "(
6800 only)". Fitting the missing components allows it to use a 6800 CPU.

-- 
Roger Johnstone, Invercargill, New Zealand
http://vintageware.orcon.net.nz/
________________________________________________________________________
  No Silicon Heaven? Preposterous! Where would all the calculators go?

              Kryten, from the Red Dwarf episode "The Last Day"