Re: Amiga, Mac, Atari

[Roger Johnstone <rojaws@es.co.nz>]

In <slrnaomot0.168i.skipper@web1.calweb.com> Skipper Smith wrote:
> Roger Johnstone <rojaws@es.co.nz> wrote:
>> 
>>WDC are the creators of the 65C02 and the 65C816.
> 
> Actually, they (under that name) weren't.
> 
> Motorola created the 6800.  A few designers walked out the door with 
> the masks to it and started a company called MOS Technologies and made 
> a chip called the 6500.  Motorola sued MOS Technologies.  A judge 
> decidedthat since Motorola made no attempt to secure their 
> intellectual property, the 6800/6500 would from then on be considered 
> public domain.  Motorolans have had to have the contents of their bags 
> perused upon entering or exiting Motorola property ever since.
>
> MOS Technologies did a respin of the 6500 to make the 6502 (Motorola 
> also did a respin) so that they could have proprietary rights to what 
> they were selling.  They also started other more complicated designs.  
> Then, for some reason, decided to sell themselves, lock, stock, and 
> barrel to CBM.  Commodore renamed that part of the company to 
> something I can't remember, and proceeded to completely abuse the fab (
> personal opinion).  Nintendo decided to use the 6502 in their original 
> game machine.  Found out that parts of the design were in the public 
> domain and proceeded to make a duplicate of the 6502 but without the 
> proprietary information and thus avoided giving CBM a single penny of 
> licensing fees that probably could have kept CBM afloat in bad times (
> but more likely would have just been siphoned off by Mehdi Ali and 
> Irving Gould).
>
> When Commodore went bankrupt, their physical equipment was sold at
> auction.  Those parts that had originally been part of MOS 
> Technologies along with the IP that was part of the 65XX family then 
> went on to become "Western Design Center".  Everything they say about 
> the estimates for sockets inhabited by 65XX parts is pretty reasonable, 
> though.
>
> This is all IIRC, but based on my association with Motorola and CBM 
> and discussions with Dave Haynie, so take it for what it is worth.

That's basically the way I've heard the story too, but WDC (which is 
basically William Mensch) did create the 65C02 (the enhanced CMOS chip) 
and the 16-bit 65C816.