Re: Any hardware info on the Apple /// ?

[et472@FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Michael Black)]

catchmerevisited (catchmerevisited2004@yahoo.ca) writes:
> 
> According to 'AppleDesign: the Work of the Apple Industrial Design Group"
> (Paul Kunkel, Apple Computer Inc., 1997) :
> "Wozniak spent six months designing his own computer with all the components
> on a single board using a new microprocessor made by Motorola called the
> 6800.
> Beginning in October 1975, Wozniak spent more thean 40 hours with Steve Jobs
> in March 1976 building and testing that first prototype."
> 
> Therefore according to the book, Apple had used the 6800 from the beginning.
> 
> Apparently the book is in error- but why would Apple deliberately alter
> their own history?
> 

Because errors can arise no matter who publishes it?

The story elsewhere is that the Apple was designed around the 6800, but
I'm not sure if anything was actually built.  The 6502 (or the original
variant) came along in the late summer of 1975, and MOS Technology would
sell it to you in single quantities for $20 each.  This at a time when 
any of the other CPUs would cost hundreds of dollars in single quantity.
(The story goes that the price of the bare Altair 8800 was as cheap as
buying a single 8080 by itself, or at least close to it.)

The original MOS Technology offering was pin compatible with the 6800.
You could plug it in where a 6800 went, and by running 6500 software,
it would run.  A very cheap alternative to the 6800.  Motorola objected
to this, so few if any of that CPU got out into the world.  But very
rapidly, we saw the actual 6502, which had the same insides, but the present
pinouts that would not fit in a 6800 socket.

Note that Chuck Peddle designed the 6800, and then we went to MOS Technology
and designed the 6502.  So at the very least, the two ICs were similar in
design philosophy.  Obviously, since the architecture of the two are close
together than between the 6502 and the 8080.  But the interface was very
similar, which is why 6502 peripheral ICs (such as the 6551) would work
with the 6800, and vice versa.

Now, that low price of the 6502 got attention.  It may be that Steve
Wozniak switched to it before even building his computer, which of course
originally was just a hobby project.  Or, perhaps the original computer
did have a 6800, if he could afford it, but then he switched to the 6502
because not only did it require very little redesign work, but it was so
much cheaper.


  Michael