For the past 5 years or so I have been collecting references on early 8-bit
microprocessors, with an emphasis on the Motorola MC6800. The best source is
trade magazines from the mid-1970s. I have a reasonable collection of
McGraw-Hill's Electronics and a few issues of Electronic Design and EDN. I
am old enough that I read all of these when they were new. I got a bunch
from eBay and another bundle from Steven Stengel on
this list. I have not
ventured over to the University of Washington yet, they have
a good
collection. (I can scan my individual issues at home.)
Motorola did not chronicle their microprocessor development like Intel did.
MOS Technology has Chuck Peddle telling an alternate reality version of the
events. Chuck's enthusiastic promotion of the 6502 in 1975 was responsible
for its success and his story has improved with 35 years of retelling.
Rereading these magazines gives a better understanding of what really
happened. Did you know that the Motorola 6800 and Intel 8080 both had their
introductory articles in the April 18, 1974 issue of Electronics?
I have uploaded a selection of articles to my website.
http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/Microprocessors/Microprocessor_History.htm
There is one issue with a 6800 article that I have not found is the November
20, 1974 issue of EDN, "A very complete chip set joins the great
microprocessor race" starting on page 87. Has anyone got it?
I wrote the Motorola 6800 article on Wikipedia and just updated the MOS
Technology 6502 article.
Michael Holley