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Chapter 46 - Chapter 46

 Perhaps many people have never heard of the MOS 6502 CPU. That's normal, because the company that produced it—MOS Technology—went out of business not long after the rise of the Internet era. The root cause was financial troubles.

But at the same time, the fall of MOS only made the 6502 even more legendary. It is the only CPU in history said to have broken Moore's Law before Moore's Law itself! It became a product that outlived the company that created it.

That's right! Even after MOS went bankrupt, the 6502—or its upgraded variants—continued to be sold. The key lies in its design: the 6502 was built to be practical, cheap, and efficient.

When talking about the 6502, one cannot ignore its design team.

Most of the engineers came from Motorola, and many had been the chief architects of Motorola's first-generation 6800 CPU. Their goal in designing the 6502 was simple: create the cheapest CPU in the world.

They left Motorola after clashing with management. The engineers believed Motorola shouldn't compete head-on with Intel by making expensive, high-performance CPUs. Instead, they argued, CPUs should be affordable and accessible to ordinary people, lowering the barrier to owning a computer. To them, technology wasn't meant to be a status symbol—its purpose was to spread and serve the masses.

Motorola rejected this philosophy. After failed discussions, the engineers left as a group and joined MOS Technology. There, they built the MOS 6502.

And with that, the world changed. The 6502 dramatically lowered the price of personal computers. Machines that once belonged only to governments, militaries, corporations, and universities suddenly entered the homes. This moment marked the true beginning of the computer age.

But its story didn't end there. When the 6502 could no longer meet the performance needs of full-fledged computers, it was adapted with new ports and modest upgrades, then embedded into game consoles. The most famous of these was Nintendo's Famicom (NES). The chip's "just enough" power and extremely low cost allowed Nintendo to profit from a console that, by all expectations, should have lost money.

Yet, that still wasn't the 6502's peak. When Nintendo eventually considered it too weak and moved on, the 6502 found a new home—with Bandai. The world-famous Tamagotchi (electronic pet eggs) ran on a modified version of the chip.

Even then, it refused to retire. Well into the new century, in booming Eastern markets, the 6502 lived on in educational devices.

Ethan remembered his marketing professor once saying in class:

"The MOS 6502 may be one of the greatest products in history. Recorded sales alone exceeded one billion units. More importantly, since its birth, it has remained active in the market, leaving a revolutionary impact across multiple industries."

The professor's words still echoed in Ethan's mind: "If you want to build an everlasting company like Coca-Cola, the best path is to find ways to generate huge profits from low prices. MOS failed—not because of the 6502 itself, but because they misplayed their industrial chain strategy."

As Alan Kay, winner of the Turing Award, once said:

"People who are serious about software should make their own hardware."

MOS produced some of the best hardware in the world, but they never made software. As a result, all they earned was the bare minimum profit from the 6502, while consumer electronics companies made the real money.

It was truly a shame. when Ethan sat through that lecture, he had felt the MOS 6502 was just too special. And now—could this really be the same central microprocessor Wozniak was talking about?

Damn! Isn't this the one that was supposed to be in the Apple II? Why is it in the Apple I?Wait—that's not right. When exactly did this thing come out? This chip… this might be the real gold mine!

Ethan's eyes burned with excitement. But to Wozniak, that look was simply a reflection of someone eager to witness a miracle.

After showing them the MOS 6502, the chubby engineer said:

"Although you've come to my house, I can't show you the true charm of this microprocessor yet. It'll take some time—I haven't finished building the circuit board I designed."

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

"Stephen, I've got nothing to do either. You know, Snake Game is already finished, I'm just waiting to collect the money." Ethan Jones grinned. "But if you need my help, I'll need you to help me out with accommodation. I'm not living at home these days—I'm in San Francisco, and running back and forth is a hassle."

"Okay, okay." Wozniak laughed. "Brothers, I'm glad you're joining me! My ideas are a bit complicated, and if I do it alone it'll be too slow. So—come with me."

He led them into his garage. Ethan was stunned by the dazzling array of equipment, but Wozniak moved with ease, spreading out some drawings on the table.

"Brothers, you've all seen the Altair. Tell me—what do you think of that computer? Because to me, that machine is downright anti-human!"

All its signal input relies on flipping toggle switches. For the general public—people who don't even know what binary is—that's an impossibly high barrier.

That's why, in my design, my computer will be like the ones at the university: it'll use a keyboard."

He paused, then added, "Of course, that makes production more complicated. I'll handle the circuit board. But you two—can you help me with the casing and the keyboard's keycaps and switches? The school's computers use big keyboards, but mine will only be the size of a briefcase. Standard keycaps won't work."

"No problem," Jobs said, shaking his head.

"My pleasure," Ethan added with a smile.

"Good. Then let's get started."

Wozniak nodded, ready to assign tasks. But then he suddenly paused, raised his head, and asked:

"…Ethan, can you cook?"

"A little bit," Ethan replied, blinking in surprise. "Why?"

"Okay, we can't." The fat man clapped his hands. "It's not that I can't cook—it's mainly because Steve's cooking is too awful. He only eats vegetarian food now, but I can't. I want meat!"

As soon as he said this, Jobs was visibly unhappy. "Oh, Stephen! I told you—just meditate with me! This step is easy to overcome!"

"No, no, no!" Wozniak shook his head. "My mother gave me this body. She'd be very sad if I lost weight."

"You're obviously just making excuses for your own indulgence!"

"Then next time you see my mother, tell her that yourself!"

Amid their bickering, the work gradually shifted back to production. Over the next few days, Ethan truly saw what the top minds of this era were capable of. Although—no, Woz couldn't really be called a "geek" anymore.

Because what he used wasn't just tinkering—it was minimalist engineering wisdom refined from military technology.

Take the Altair, the most popular computer on the market. It needed six circuit boards to run properly. Wozniak's computer? Only one circuit board.

And this board was like a honeycomb—densely packed. On the circuit diagram he spread out, four rows of transistors needed soldering. At the bottom right sat eight serially connected RAM chips, totaling 8KB. Right next to them was the MOS 6502, sitting like a beating heart. On the far left lay the keyboard interface.

Up to this point, Ethan could follow. But as his eyes moved up, the rest of the circuitry became incomprehensible. Apart from a "Video Interface" label in the upper left, the only other part he recognized was three batteries marked in the upper right.

Yes—Wozniak's computer even used a special-coded battery!

It wasn't some ordinary AA battery, but a chunky cell: 1.5 inches in diameter, 2.4 inches tall, with a voltage of 4.5 volts.

When Ethan saw the battery interface, he was completely baffled. The first Apple computer… with a battery? Isn't this basically a future laptop?!

When he finally asked Wozniak why the motherboard needed a battery at all, the fat man's face lit up with pride.

"This is my special design," Wozniak declared. "I call it a fully regulated power supply.

Ethan, you should know—different countries have different voltage standards. Here in the U.S. it's 120 volts, but in Japan it's 100, and in Europe it can be 200. Normally, when electrical appliances are used abroad, people have to buy converters. But my fully regulated power supply is a converter—it allows the computer to run at any voltage between 100 and 240 volts!

I told you—the Altair is trash! They never consider how ordinary people actually use computers!"

Holy shit, really? Ethan was stunned. He hadn't expected Woz to think about something like this.

For a moment, Ethan even wondered if this fat man was a time traveler.

Because if you're just making a computer for yourself, you don't need a voltage converter at all. You only design something like that if, from the very beginning, you believe what you're building will be used all over the world.

After five days of hard work, on June 29, 1975, a computer in a brown wooden box finally came to life.

When Woz pressed the keyboard, characters flickered onto the dark screen.

The fat man's face lit up with joy. " I knew I was a genius!"

Jobs was just as excited. "Ohhhhhh! This is our own computer!"

"Congratulations, Steve! You did it!" Ethan cheered loudly.

But at the same time, he confirmed one thing for certain.

There was nothing wrong with his memory: the MOS 6502—this was the real golden mine And so far, only Steve Wozniak had mined it.

Note:

① The MOS 6502 is a legendary chip enshrined in the Chip Hall of Fame. Products based on it include the Apple I and II, Atari consoles (2600, 5200, 7800, 800), the Nintendo FC, and the Commodore PET—among the best-selling electronic products in history. Some of these used upgraded or modified versions of the 6502.

② Nintendo's FC actually used a 6502-derived chip. The WDC 65C816, too, was a direct modification of the 6502, and the person behind it was the original 6502 patentee.

③ Regarding the Motorola engineers who left: in November 1975, Motorola's then-CEO Robert Galvin admitted in a media interview that the R&D staff had developed a brilliant idea—but Motorola failed to seize it. He admitted it was his responsibility and that the company may have missed its chance to embrace the consumer electronics revolution. Looking back, Motorola indeed lost an opportunity to surpass IBM and perhaps dominate the global market. If the 6502 had been launched under Motorola—or if the company had accepted the concept of consumer electronics—then today's trillion-dollar industries in gaming and digital devices might have been Motorola's empire. At the very least, Motorola would have been the market leader. Whether x86 could have risen in such a world is uncertain, but that would be another story.

As for Robert—who mishandled it all—he eventually became Motorola's chairman in the 1990s. His ascent, however, was due largely to family legacy: his father was the company's founder. Before becoming Motorola, it was originally called the Galvin Manufacturing Company.

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