Re: Amiga, Mac, Atari

[skipper@no-spam.calweb.com (Skipper Smith)]

Roger Johnstone <rojaws@es.co.nz> wrote:
>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.

That is correct.  I was mistake on that part.  He left MOS Technologies
when Commodore bought them and went their seperate ways.

>From what I remember one of the chips (6501?) was pin-compatible with 
>the 6800, not just bus-compatible like the other 6500 chips. Was this 
>ever actually sold, or did they have to can it for legal reasons?

Pin compatibility wasn't what made for the legal problems- it was the
duplication of the mask (which was trademarked).  I don't know what the
legal issues might have been at that time with bus compatibility, nor do I
know of anything that occured with the 6501, sorry.


-- 
Skipper Smith                         Helpful Knowledge Consulting
Worldwide         Microprocessor       Architecture       Training
PowerPC, ColdFire, 68K, CPU32                Hardware and Software

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