Rebirth of America, this is my time

Perhaps many people have never heard of the MOS 6502 CPU.

This is normal, because the company that produced it, MOS, went out of business shortly after the advent of the Internet era.

The specific crux can be attributed to financial issues.

But at the same time, the death of MOS company also made the MOS 6502 CPU even more legendary. Because it is the only CPU in the world that broke Moore's Law before Moore's Law expired! It is the only product whose lifespan is longer than that of the company!

That's right! After MOS company went bankrupt, MOS 6502, or its upgraded product, is still on sale! The key to this situation is that the product MOS 6502 is designed to be very practical!

When talking about the MOS 6502 CPU, their design team must be mentioned.

Most of the design teams for this CPU come from Motorola, and many of them are even the main architects of Motorola's first-generation Shenxin 6800. When designing the MOS 6502, their goal was to create the cheapest CPU in the world.

Because these engineers left Motorola because of differences between their design concepts and Motorola's strategic planning. They felt that Motorola's plans in the CPU field should not be benchmarked against Intel, and Motorola should not produce CPUs with the same performance as Intel. , but should serve the public and reduce the cost of computer acquisition for more customers.

They even believe that personal computers cannot become a symbol of status and class.

The meaning of technological iteration is to make products popular.

But Motorola denied their idea. After the discussion was fruitless, these engineers had no choice but to leave collectively and gather at MOS Company. Then... they built MOS 6502.

Then, this CPU changed the world.

MOS 6502 completely lowered the price of personal computers! Let computers that once belonged only to the government, the military, major enterprises, and universities enter the doors of hundreds of households, and the world has officially entered the computer age!

If it were just these, it would not be able to write its legend.

After the computing power of MOS 6502 could not support the needs of computers, this CPU was simply modified with a different port and slightly upgraded performance. Then it was put into its own home consoles by major game companies, the most popular one being Nintendo. FC!

That just-right performance and extremely cheap price allowed Nintendo to make money on a console that should have been losing money!

But this is not the highlight of MOS 6502.

What’s even more awesome about MOS 6502 is that when Nintendo felt that its computing power was insufficient and decided to eliminate it, it entered the arms of Bandai. The world-famous Tamagotchi, also known as electronic pet eggs, was modified with it. Made instead!

Even so, when the new century arrives, MOS 6502 has not yet been retired.

When the Eastern market boomed, the modified version of MOS 6502 was used in Wenquxing and Haojixing.

In a previous life, in Ethan's elective marketing class, the old professor who gave the lecture once said this.

"MOS 6502 may be one of the best products in the world, because the recorded sales alone have exceeded one billion. More importantly, since its birth, it has been active in the market and has played an important role in many industries. It had a revolutionary impact.”

Ethan even remembered what the old professor said about MOS 6502——

"If you want to become an everlasting company like Coca-Cola, the best thing to do is to find ways to make huge profits from low prices. Although MOS failed, they were not on MOS 6502 What failed was the failure in the layout of the industrial chain.”

"Turing Award winner Alan Kay once said: "People who're serious about software should make their own hardware. "

"MOS produces the best hardware in the world, but they don't make software. All they reap is the minimum profit of 6502, and more money is made by other consumer goods companies."

"It's really a shame."

When listening to this class in his previous life, Ethan felt that MOS 6502 was too special!

And now, is this the central microprocessor Wozniak is talking about?

‘Fuck! Isn't this thing supposed to be used on APPLE2? Why is APPLE1 used? ’

'wrong! When did this thing come out? This special code seems to be the real gold mine! ’

Ethan’s eyes were a little fiery.

But in Wozniak's view, it was a desire to witness a miracle.

After showing the MOS 6502, the little fat man said: "Although you have come to my house, I can't show you the real charm of this central microprocessor now."

"It will take some time because I haven't built the circuit board I designed yet."

These words made the two of them take the initiative to express their opinions——

"No problem, I can wait." Jobs said directly: "If you need my help, you can just say it. Atari doesn't care. Nolan won't care about me now anyway."

"Stephen, I have nothing to do. You know, "Snake Game" is here and I will just wait to collect the money." Ethan Jones also said with a smile: "However, if you need my help, then you may have to Please help me solve the accommodation problem, because I don’t live at home recently, I live in San Francisco, and it’s very troublesome to run around every day.”

"Okay, Okay." Wozniak laughed, "Brothers, I'm glad you can join!"

"Because my ideas are a bit complicated, it may be slower to do it alone."

"So, come with me."

While talking, Wozniak also took the two people into his garage.

Ethan was dazzled by the dazzling array of equipment, but Wozniak picked it up easily and spread out the drawings on the table, "Brothers, you have all seen Altair. I don't know what you think of that." It’s a computer, but what I want to tell you is that what that machine did was really anti-human!”

"All signal transmission relies on joystick movements. This is a very high threshold for the general public who have never been exposed to computers, because they do not understand what binary is."

"So, under my design, my computer will be like the computer in the university, with a keyboard."

"Therefore, its production will be quite troublesome. I am responsible for the circuit board, and you two, can you help me make the machine's casing and keycap rocker? You know, the machine keyboard in the school It will be a little bigger, and mine is only the size of a briefcase, so normal size keycaps cannot be used.”

"No problem." Jobs shook his head.

"It's my pleasure." Ethan said with a smile.

"Okay, let's get started."

The little fat man nodded and prepared to assign work.

However, the next second, he paused again, raised his head and said, "No, I have a question."

"Ethan, can you cook?"

"You know a little bit, what's wrong?"

"Okay, we can't." The little fat man clapped his hands and said: "It's not that I can't, it's mainly because Steve's cooking is too unpalatable. He only likes to be vegetarian now, but I can't. I want to eat meat. .”

As soon as these words came out, Jobs was not happy.

"Oh Stephen! I told you, just meditate with me! This step is easy to overcome!"

"No, No, No!"

The little fat man shook his head like a rattle.

"My mother gave me this body. She would be very sad if I lost weight."

"You are obviously looking for excuses for your own indulgence!"

"Then next time you see my mother, tell her in person!"

Amidst their noise, the production gradually gets into theme.

In the next few days, Ethan also saw what the top geeks of this era were like.

Oh no, Woz shouldn’t be considered a geek anymore.

Because he uses the minimalist wisdom developed by the military industry.

While Altair, the most popular computer on the market today, uses six circuit boards to run properly, the computer designed by Steve Wozniak has only one circuit board.

And this circuit board is like a honeycomb, densely packed.

On the circuit diagram he designed, there were four rows of transistors that needed to be soldered.

On the right side of the bottom row are eight serially connected random access memories, with a total size of eight kilobytes.

Close to the edge of the random access memory is the home of MOS 6502.

On the far left is the keyboard interface.

Up to this point, Ethan could understand it, but as he went up, he couldn't understand the other three rows of circuit diagrams.

Apart from the video interface marked in the upper left corner, the only ones he recognized were the three batteries in the upper right corner.

Yes, the computer designed by Wozniak even had a special-coded battery!

That's not even an AA battery, but a large battery that's 1.5 inches in diameter, 2.4 inches tall, and has a voltage of 4.5 volts!

When Ethan saw the battery interface, he was completely confused!

Because this thing looks too special and fantasy!

The world's first Apple computer came with a battery? What is the difference between this Nima and the future notebook?

And when Ethan asked Wozniak why this computer motherboard still has a battery, the little fat man's face suddenly showed pride, "This is my special design, I call it a fully regulated 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 is 120 volts, but Liben is 100 volts or 200 volts. In this case When electrical appliances from different countries are used in foreign countries, converters will be used. And my fully regulated power supply is a converter, which allows the computer to operate at any voltage between 100 volts and 240 volts."

"I told you, Altair is trash!"

"They never consider how ordinary people feel when using computers!"

‘Fuck! Is that so? ’ Ethan was a little surprised.

He didn't expect that Woz would even consider such a thing?

At this moment, he even felt that this fat man was a time traveler!

Because if it's just for personal use, he doesn't need a voltage converter at all, right?

Only if you feel from the beginning that what you design will be popular all over the world will you do this!

After five days of hard work, on June 29, 1975, a computer in a brown wooden box finally came out. When Woz typed on the keyboard, characters appeared on the dark screen...

The little fat man's face was suddenly filled with joy.

"Liquid! I knew I was a genius!"

Jobs was also excited.

"Ohhhhhh! This is our own computer!"

"Congratulations Steve! You did it!"

Ethan was cheering too.

But at the same time, he also confirmed one thing.

There is no flaw in his memory, MOS 6502, that is Jinshan!

And it is a golden mountain that only Steve Wozniak has touched so far!

Note: ① MOS 6502 is a legendary chip that has entered the Chip Hall of Fame. Products based on it include Apple 1 and 2, Atari home consoles 2600, 5200, 7800, 800, Nintendo FC, Commodore PET, etc. best-selling electronic products. Of course, some of the products here use upgraded and modified versions of 6502. ②Nintendo’s NFC is actually a 6502 chip. WDC 65C816 is modified based on 6502, and the person who modified it is the patentee of 6502. ③ Regarding the departure of Motorola engineers, in November 1975, Motorola’s then CEO Robert Galvin said in an interview with the media that the R\u0026D staff came up with a very good idea, but Motorola did not seize it. It's his problem, he may have caused Motorola to miss the opportunity to embrace the world. From the current perspective, Motorola has indeed missed an opportunity to surpass IBM and even dominate the world. If 6502 appears in the hands of Motorola, or Motorola accepts the concept of consumer electronics, now trillions of games and electronic equipment There may still be a new market at this level, but at the beginning, Motorola will definitely be the leader. No one knows whether X86 can make a comeback, because that is another story. Robert, who messed up all this, became the chairman of Motorola in the 1990s, because his father was the founder of Motorola. Motorola was originally called Galvin Manufacturing Company.