The MOS 6502 CPU might be unfamiliar to many.
That's understandable because the company producing it, MOS, went out of business shortly after the advent of the Internet.
The root cause was financial troubles.
Yet, the demise of MOS added a touch of legend to the MOS 6502 CPU. It stood out as the only CPU in the world to break Moore's Law before Moore's Law became obsolete! It's also the only product that outlived its own company!
Yes! After MOS went under, the MOS 6502, or its upgraded versions, continued to be sold! The key to this situation was the practical design of the MOS 6502 – it just worked!
Speaking of the MOS 6502 CPU, one must mention its design team.
Most of the team came from Motorola, some were even the main architects of Motorola's legendary 6800 chip. When designing the MOS 6502, their goal was clear: create the world's cheapest CPU.
These engineers had left Motorola due to differences in design philosophy and Motorola's strategic planning. They believed Motorola shouldn't benchmark Intel in CPU design. Instead, Motorola should focus on serving the masses, reducing the cost of acquiring computers for more customers.
They even believed that personal computers shouldn't symbolize status and class.
The essence of technological iteration is to make products accessible.
However, Motorola rejected their ideas. After futile discussions, these engineers collectively left and converged at MOS, where they created the MOS 6502.
Subsequently, this CPU changed the world.
The MOS 6502 dramatically lowered the price of personal computers, bringing them into the homes of ordinary people. It officially ushered the world into the computer age!
But that's not all; the MOS 6502's brilliance continued. When its computing power couldn't meet the demands of computers, it underwent a simple port modification, and a slight performance upgrade, and major game companies incorporated it into their home gaming consoles. The most popular one is Magnavox's Odyssey!
The perfect balance of performance and an incredibly low price allowed Magnavox to profit from a console that should have been a loss!
Yet, the true brilliance of MOS 6502 emerged when, even after Nintendo felt it lacked the computational power and decided to phase it out, it found its way into Japan's hands, becoming a global sensation.
Even into the new century, MOS 6502 hadn't retired. When the East Asian market flourished, a modified version of MOS 6502 found its way into educational devices.
In a previous life, during Ethan's marketing class at Stanford, the professor had praised MOS 6502.
"MOS 6502 might be one of the world's outstanding products. Recorded sales have surpassed a billion units, and more importantly, since its birth, it has remained active in the market, causing revolutionary impacts on multiple industries."
Ethan even recalled the professor's evaluation of MOS 6502:
"If you want to become a perennial company like Coca-Cola, the most crucial thing is to find a way to extract substantial profits from low prices. Although MOS, the company, failed, they didn't fail with the MOS 6502. They failed in the layout of their industry chain."
Alan Kay, Turing Award winner, once said, "People who're serious about software should make their own hardware."
"MOS produced the world's best hardware, but they didn't make software. They only earned the minimal profits from the 6502, while other consumer goods companies took away most of the money."
"It's truly unfortunate."
In his previous life, Ethan thought MOS 6502 was extraordinary during that class.
And now, Wozniak claims that this is the central microprocessor he's talking about.
"Oh, damn! Wasn't this supposed to be used in APPLE 2? Why is it in APPLE 1?"
"No, when did this thing come out? It seems like a real goldmine!"
Ethan's eyes sparkled.
But for Wozniak, this was a desire to witness a miracle.
After showcasing the MOS 6502, the chubby Wozniak said, "Although you guys came to my place, I can't show you the true charm of this central microprocessor right now."
"I need some time because I haven't made the circuit board for my design."
This statement prompted both of them to offer help.
"No problem, I can wait," Jobs said directly. "If you need my help, just say it. I don't care about Atari; Nolan won't bother me now anyway."
"Stephen, I don't have much going on either. You know, with 'Snake Game,' I'm just waiting to collect money," Ethan Jones also smiled and said, "But if you need my help, you might have to solve my accommodation problem. I haven't been staying at home lately; I'm in Palo Alto. It's a hassle to come and go every day."
"Okay, okay." Wozniak laughed. "I'm glad you guys could join!"
"Because my ideas are a bit complicated, doing it alone might be slow."
"So, follow me."
While talking, Wozniak led them into his garage.
The array of instruments bewildered Ethan, but Wozniak casually picked up and spread out blueprints on the table. "Brothers, you've already seen the Altair. I don't know how you guys view that computer, but what I want to tell you is, that machine is too user-unfriendly!"
"All signal transmissions rely on joystick movements. This is a very high barrier for the ordinary public who have never touched a computer because they don't understand binary."
"So, in my design, my computer will have a keyboard, just like the computers in universities."
"Therefore, the production will be a bit tricky. I'm in charge of the circuit board, and you two can help me with the casing and keycaps for the machine. As you know, school computers have larger keyboards, and mine is only the size of a briefcase, so regular-sized keycaps won't work."
"No problem," Jobs nodded.
"It's my pleasure," Ethan smiled.
"Good, let's get started."
The chubby guy nodded and was about to assign tasks.
But the next moment, he stopped and looked up. "Wait, I have a question."
"Ethan, can you cook?"
"A bit, why?"
"Okay, we won't." The chubby guy clapped his hands and said, "It's not that we can't cook, it's just that Steve's cooking is terrible. He only likes vegetarians now, but not me. I want to eat meat."
As soon as these words came out, Jobs became unhappy.
"Oh, Stephen! I told you, you just need to meditate with me! This step is easy to overcome!"
"No, no, no!"
The chubby guy shook his head like beating a drum.
"This body was given to me by my mom. If I lose weight, she'll be sad."
"You're clearly finding an excuse for your indulgence!"
"Then next time you meet my mom, tell her in person!"
Amid their bickering, the production gradually got back on track.
In the following days, Ethan also witnessed the skills of the top geeks of this era.
Oh no, Woz couldn't be considered a geek.
Because he used military-developed minimalist intelligence.
While the current popular computer, the Altair, required a whopping six circuit boards to function properly, Steve Wozniak's designed computer had only one circuit board.
And this circuit board resembled a beehive, densely packed.
On his designed circuit diagram, there were four rows of transistors that needed to be soldered.
At the bottom right were eight serially connected random access memories, totalling eight kilobytes.
Right next to the random access memory was the dwelling place of the MOS 6502.
On the left was the keyboard interface.
Up to this point, Ethan could understand, but going upward, he couldn't comprehend the circuit diagrams of the other three rows.
Except for the video interface marked in the upper left corner, the only things he recognized were the three batteries in the upper right corner.
Yes, in the computer designed by Wozniak, there were actual batteries!
And these weren't just any batteries; they were 1.5 inches in diameter, 2.4 inches in height, with a voltage of 4.5 volts – large batteries!
When Ethan saw the battery interface, he was completely dumbfounded!
Because this thing looked too surreal!
The world's first Apple computer actually had batteries? How is this any different from future laptops?
And when Ethan asked Wozniak why the motherboard of this computer needed batteries, the chubby guy's face immediately showed pride. "This is my special design. I call it the universal adjustable power supply."
"Ethan, you should know that there are many countries on this Earth, and the voltage standards in different countries are different. For example, our country has 120 volts, but Japan has 100 volts or 200 volts. In such situations, different countries' electrical appliances used in foreign countries would require converters. And my universal adjustable power supply is a converter; it allows the computer to operate at any voltage between 100 volts and 240 volts."
"I told you, Altair is just garbage!"
"They never considered the feelings of ordinary people when using computers!"
"Oh, damn! Is that so?" Ethan was somewhat surprised.
He didn't expect that Woz would consider even this?
At this moment, he even felt that this chubby guy was a time traveller!
Because if it was just for personal use, he wouldn't need to bother with a voltage converter, right?
Only someone who believed from the beginning that what he designed could become a global sensation would do something like this!
After five days of rushed work, on June 29, 1975, a computer housed in a brown wooden box finally appeared. When Wozniak tapped the keyboard, characters appeared on the pitch-black screen.
The chubby guy's face was instantly filled with joy.
"Yes! I knew I was a genius!"
Jobs was also excited.
"Ohhhhhh! This is our own computer!"
"Congratulations, Steve! You did it!"
Ethan was also cheering.
But at the same time, he confirmed one thing.
His memory had no flaws. The MOS 6502 was indeed the Gold Mountain!
And it was a Gold Mountain that, until now, only Steve Wozniak had touched!
TL Note:
MOS 6502 is a legendary chip that entered the Chip Hall of Fame. Products born based on it include Apple 1, 2, Atari home consoles 2600, 5200, 7800, 800, Nintendo FC, Commodore PET, and many other best-selling electronic products at that time. Of course, some of these products use an upgraded version of the 6502.
Nintendo's NFC is also a chip of 6502; WDC 65C816 is based on 6502, modified by the patent holder of 6502.
About the incident of Motorola engineers leaving, in November 1975, Robert Galvin, the then CEO of Motorola, said in a media interview that those researchers had a brilliant idea, but Motorola didn't seize it, which was his fault. He might have made Motorola miss the opportunity to embrace the world. Looking at it now, Motorola did indeed miss an opportunity greater than IBM's, even ruling the world. Whether X86 can overturn it is unclear, as that is another story. Robert, who messed up everything, became the chairman of Motorola in the 1990s because his father was the founder of Motorola. Motorola was originally called Galvin Manufacturing Company.