Reborn America, this is my time

Chapter 47 The Real Gold Mountain!
Many people may not have heard of the MOS 6502 CPU.

That's normal, because the company that produced it, MOS, went out of business shortly after the advent of the Internet age.

The specific crux can be attributed to financial problems.

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

That's right!After the MOS company closed down, MOS 6502, or its upgraded products, are still on sale!The key to this situation is that the product design of MOS 6502 is too practical!
And when it comes to the MOS 6502 CPU, we must mention their design team.

Most of the design team of this CPU comes from Motorola, and many people are even the main architects of Motorola's first-generation Shenxin 6800.At the beginning of designing MOS 6502, their goal was to create the cheapest CPU in the world.

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

They even believe that the personal computer cannot be a symbol of status and class.

The significance of technological iteration is to popularize products.

But Motorola denied their ideas. After the discussion was fruitless, these engineers could only leave collectively and gather in MOS company, and then...they created MOS 6502.

Then, this CPU changed the world.

MOS 6502 completely beat the price of personal computer!Let the computers that once only belonged to the government, the army, major enterprises, and various colleges and universities enter the doors of hundreds of households, and the world has officially entered the computer age!
If it's just these, it's impossible to write its legend.

After the computing power of the MOS 6502 could not support the needs of the computer, this CPU was simply changed and the port was changed, and the performance was slightly upgraded, and then it was put into their home consoles by major game companies, the most popular one being Nintendo's FC!

The just-right performance and extremely cheap price allowed Nintendo to make money with a console that was supposed to lose money!
But this is not the brilliance of MOS 6502.

The most amazing thing about MOS 6502 is that when Nintendo also felt that its computing power was insufficient and decided to eliminate it, it entered the embrace of Bandai again. Made it!
Even so, when the new century came, the MOS 6502 was not retired.

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

In the previous life, in the marketing class that Ethan took, the old professor who gave the lecture once said.

"MOS 6502 may be one of the best products in the world, because the recorded sales volume alone has exceeded one billion pieces, and more importantly, since its birth, it has been active in the market, and has great influence on many industries. It had a revolutionary impact."

Ethan even remembered that the old professor commented on MOS 6502 in this way——

"If you want to become a company as long-lasting as Coca-Cola, the most important thing to do is to find a way to make huge profits from low prices. Although MOS failed, they are not on MOS 6502 Failed, but failed in the layout of the industrial chain."

"Alan Kay, the winner of the Turing Award, once said: "People who're serious about software should make their own hardware (people who are really serious about software should make their own hardware). "

"MOS produced the best hardware in the world, but they didn't make software. What they reaped was only the lowest profit of 6502, and more money was earned by other consumer goods companies."

"It's really a pity."

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

And now, this is the central microprocessor that Wozniak was talking about?
'Fuck!Shouldn't this stuff be used on APPLE2?How APPLE1 used? '

'wrong!When did this thing come out?This particular one seems to be the real big gold mine! '

Ethan's eyes were a little hot.

But to Wozniak, it was the desire to witness miracles.

After showing 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."

"I need a certain amount of time, because I haven't made the circuit board I designed yet."

This remark made the two of them take the initiative to express their views——

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

"Stephen, I'm fine, you know, there is "Snake Game", I just wait to collect the money." Ethan Jones also said with a smile: "However, if you need my help, then you may have to Help me solve the problem of accommodation, 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. "I'm glad you guys are in!"

"Because my thoughts are a bit complicated, it may be slower for one person to do it."

"So, come with me."

While speaking, Wozniak also led the two into his garage.

Ethan was dazzled by the dazzling array of equipment, but Wozniak found them at his fingertips and spread out the blueprints on the table, "Brothers, you have all seen the Altair, I don't know what you think of that A computer, but what I want to tell you is that what that machine did was really anti-human!"

"All signal transmission relies on the joystick, which is a very high threshold for ordinary people who have never touched a computer, because they don't understand what binary is."

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

"Therefore, it will be more troublesome to make it. I am responsible for the content of the circuit board, and you two, can you help me make the machine's shell and keycap rocker? You know, the machine keyboard in the school It would be a bit bigger, and mine is only the size of a briefcase, so normal-sized keycaps won't work."

"No problem." Jobs shook his head.

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

"Okay, let's start then."

The little fat man nodded, and was about to assign work.

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

"Ethan, can you cook?"

"A little bit, what's the matter?"

"Okay, we won't." The little fat man clapped his hands and said: "It's not that I can't, the main reason is that Steve's cooking is too bad, he only likes to be vegetarian now, but I can't, I want to eat meat .”

As soon as this remark came out, Jobs was not happy.

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

"No, No, No!"

The little fat man shook his head like a rattle.

"My body was given to me by my mother. If I lose weight, she will be very sad."

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

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

Amidst their clamor, the production gradually entered the theme.

And in the next few days, Ethan also saw what level the top geeks of this era are.

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

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

While Altair, the most popular computer on the market today, used a full six circuit boards to function properly, Steve Wozniak designed a computer with only one circuit board.

And this circuit board is densely packed like a honeycomb.

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

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

Close to the edge of the random access memory, it is the shelter of MOS 6502.

On the far left is the keyboard interface.

Until here, Ethan could understand it, but when he went up, he couldn't understand the circuit diagrams of the other three rows.

Except for the marked video interface in the upper left corner, all he knows are the three batteries in the upper right corner.

Yes, in the computer designed by Wozniak, there is even a special battery!

That's not even an AA battery, it's a big battery 1.5 inches in diameter, 2.4 inches high, and 4.5 volts!
When Ethan saw the battery interface, he was completely dumbfounded!

Because this thing looks too special code fantasy!

The world's first Apple computer actually had a battery?What is the difference between this Nima and the future notebook?
And when Ethan asked Wozniak why this computer motherboard had a battery, the little fat man suddenly showed pride on his face, "This is my special design, and 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 Under the circumstances, when electrical appliances in different countries are used in foreign countries, something like a converter will be used. And my fully regulated power supply is a converter, which can make the computer work at any voltage between 100 volts and 240 volts."

"Like I said, Altair is trash!"

"They never considered how normal people feel when they use computers!"

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

He didn't expect that Woz even considered this kind of thing?

At this moment, he even felt that this fat man was a time traveler!
Because if it's just for his own use, he doesn't need any voltage converter at all, right?

Only when I feel from the beginning that the things I design will be popular all over the world, will I make this stuff!

After five days of rush work, on June 1975, 6, a computer in a brown wooden box finally came out. When Woz typed on the keyboard, characters appeared on the black screen...

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

"Ye! I knew I was a genius!"

Jobs was also thrilled.

"Ohhhhhh! It's our own computer!"

"Congratulations Steve! You did it!"

Ethan was also cheering.

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

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

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

　Note: ①MOS 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 products here use the upgraded and modified version of 6502. ②Nintendo's NFC is actually a chip of 6502. WDC 65C816 is modified according to 6502, and the person who modified it is the patentee of 6502. ③Regarding the departure of Motorola engineers, in November 1975, Motorola’s then CEO Robert Galvin said in an interview with the media that those R&D personnel came up with a very good idea, but Motorola did not grasp it. It's his problem. He may have caused Motorola to miss the opportunity to embrace the world.From the current point of view, Motorola has indeed missed an opportunity to surpass IBM and even rule the world. If 11 appears in the hands of Motorola, or Motorola accepts the concept of consumer electronics, games and electronic devices such as trillions of There may still be a market of high-level products, but at the beginning, Motorola must be the leader. No one knows whether X6502 can come back, because that's another story.And Robert, who messed up all this, became the chairman of Motorola in the 86s, because his father was the founder of Motorola, and Motorola was originally called Galvin Manufacturing Company.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)