M6800 Family Introduction
The March 7, 1974 issue of Electronics had a two-page story on the Motorola MC6800 microprocessor along with the MC6820 Peripheral Interface Adapter, the MC6850 communications interface adapter, the MCM6810 128 byte RAM and the MCM6830 1024 byte ROM. This was followed by an eight-page article in the April 18, 1974 issue authored by the Motorola design team. This issue also had an article introducing the Intel 8080
The Intel 8080 and the Motorola MC6800 processors both began layout around December 1972. The first working 8080 chips were produced January 1974 and the first public announcement was in February 1974. The 8080 used same three voltage N-channel MOS process as Intel's existing memory chips allowing full production to begin that April.
The first working MC6800 chips were produced in February 1974 and engineering samples were given to select customers. Hewlett Packard in Loveland, Colorado wanted the MC6800 for a new desktop calculator and had a prototype system working by June. The MC6800 used a new single voltage N-channel MOS process that proved to be very difficult to implement. The M6800 microcomputer system was finally in production by November 1974. Motorola matched Intel's price for single microprocessor, $360. (The IBM System/360 was a well-known computer at this time.) In April 1975 the MEK6800D1 microcomputer design kit was offered for $300. The kit included all six chips in the M6800 family plus application and programming manuals. The price of a single MC6800 microprocessor was $175.
Link Young was the product marketer that developed the total system approach for the M6800 family release. In addition to releasing a full set of support chips with the 6800 microprocessor, Motorola offered a software and hardware development system. The software development tools were available on remote time-sharing computers or the source code was available so the customer could use an in-house computer system. The software that would run on a microprocessor system was typically written in assembly language. The development system consisted of a text editor, assembler and a simulator. This allowed the developer to test the software before the target system was complete. The hardware development was a desktop computer build with M6800 family CPU and peripherals known as the EXORcisor. Motorola offered a three to five day microprocessor design course for the 6800 hardware and software. This systems-oriented approach became the standard way new microprocessor were introduced.
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