MOS Technology was an existing
privately owned company that made calculator chips when Chuck Peddle and Bill
Mensch, and the other six Motorola employees joined them in 1974. MOS
Technology's chip manufacturing facility, was located in Norristown,
Pennsylvania, bucking the Silicon Valley trend. Chuck Peddle, Bill Mensch and
two other designers went right to work on the 6500 series of microprocessors.
The 6500 series began with the 6501.
The 6501 was pin compatible with the 6800, but not software compatible. However,
it was taken off the market almost immediately because Motorola sued. In 1975,
MOS Technology designed the 6502, which was very different than the 6501. The
6502 became the basis for all of MOS Technologies microprocessors. The 6502
found a home in Apple, Atari, Commodore, and NES microcomputers and game
consoles. The 6502 dominated the industry in the late seventies and early
eighties until the IBM PC and the Intel 8088 "standardized" the industry.
Although the MOS Technology brand
lasted for many years, the company's independence did not. Challenged by the
Motorola law suit, MOS agreed to be purchased by Commodore
Business Machines (CBM) in 1976. The newly purchased MOS continued to sell
chips to others companies, even as Commodore made plans to bring out its own
microcomputer (PET, 1977) based on the 6502.
Note: MOS Technology and
MOSTEK are two different and unrelated
companies. Much of the literature on the Web confuses these two companies.
