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Re: Commodore and Apple



Jim Butterfield wrote:
 I doubt that during the development of the
original Apple that they were anybody that a chip manufacturer would
approach about using their chips.


Some years later, Commodore bragged that they gave Jobs and Wozniak
their first chips.  They meant MOS Technology, of course.  And I would
find it believable that a small manufacturer, coming late into a hard
market, would try to sweeten their chips to developers whenever they
found an opportunity.

Doesn't mean it really happened that way, of course.  But I find it
curious that Commodore would otherwise admit to giving a start to a
major competitor.  At the time, I wondered why they would say this,
even if true; they must have been feeling very secure.

Tomczak noted the same in his book. However, he also noted that Apple bought almost all of the 6502s from Synertek or some other second source. I seem to recall a discussion somewhere where MOS had the 6502, had gotten slammed by Motorola on the 6501 and had to ditch it, was hurting for money, and was finding it hard to push the '02 because they were small fab and had no second sources for the IC (presumably the prospective buyers wanted some insurance).

Jim


--
Jim Brain, Brain Innovations
brain@jbrain.com                                http://www.jbrain.com
Dabbling in WWW, Embedded Systems, Old CBM computers, and Good Times!