5 Nov
1998
5 Nov
'98
12:27 a.m.
This computer, made by MOS Technologies, was created
to
feature various chips that it had created. The 6502
processor was created by Chuck Peddle a Motorola engineer
who later worked for Commodore. Some say that the 6502 is
a clone of Motorola's 6800; Peddle worked on the 6800
project while he worked at Motorola.
Maybe based on the usual mix up of facts. The 6500/x
wasn't a clone at all - maybe a simplified design
using the same philosophy about a CPU, but the 6500/1
(or 6501) did use the 6800 Bus _and_ was pin compatible,
so a engeneer could replace the 6800 by a 6500/1 in a
existing design without any consideration about hardware.
Of course the software has to be rewritten. From todays
point of view its like if Motorola would design a socket 7
PowerPC chip. And in fact, AMD is about to do a similar
trick - they will use the EV6 bus protocall of the
Alpha 21264 in their new K7 design - I don't know if
it will be compatible at pin level, but I guess so.
This might lead eventualy to a series of basic PC boards,
able to be used with an Alpha 21264 running some Unix
or an K7 as x86 compatible PC. And all at the Taiwan
price range (Alpha boards are still between 175 and
300% the price of similar PC boards - at least here
in Munich).
Later on, the 6500/2 (or 6502) and all orther CPUs of
the 6500 series used their own bus protokoll and pinout.
Gruss
Hans
--
Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK