MOS Technology

Not to be confused with Mostek.

eects from the photo-reduction process. When a chip is

made with this mask there is a chance that some of these
aws will end up expressed on the chip. If too many of
MOS Technology, Inc. (MOS being short for Metal
Oxide Semiconductor), also known as CSG (Com- them are expressed, that particular chip will not work.
modore Semiconductor Group), was a semiconductor If a chip design with ve design aws results in a mask
design and fabrication company based in Norristown, with ten aws in total, there is no point in making another
Pennsylvania, in the United States. It is most famous mask because it will have the same ve design aws plus
for its 6502 microprocessor and various designs for some other set of ve copying aws. So companies simCommodore International's range of home computers.
ply built chips with known-bad masks, and threw away
broken chips. In the 1970s, this meant throwing away 70
percent or more of the completed chips. The price of a
chip is largely dened by the yield, the measure of how
1 History
many work for a given number produced, so improving
this number can lower the price and raise the gross prot
MOS Technology, Inc. was originally started in 1969 by dramatically.
Allen-Bradley to provide a second source for electronic
calculators and their chips designed by Texas Instruments MOSs engineers had learned the trick of xing their
(TI). In the early 1970s TI decided to release their own masks after they were made. This allowed them to corline of calculators, instead of selling just the chips inside rect the major aws in a series of small xes, eventually
them, and introduced them at a price that was lower than producing a mask with a very low aw rate. The comthe price of the chipset alone. Many early chip compa- panys production lines typically reversed the numbers
nies were wiped out in the aftermath; those that survived others were achieving; even the early runs of a new CPU
did so by nding other chips to produce. MOS became designwhat would become the 6502were achieving
a supplier to Atari, producing a custom single-chip Pong a success rate of 70 percent or better. This meant that not
only were its designs faster, they cost much less as well.
system.
Things changed dramatically in 1975. Several of the designers of the Motorola 6800 left the company shortly after its release, after management told them to stop working on a low-cost version of the design. At the time there
was no such thing as a design-only rm (known as a
fabless semiconductor company today), so they had to
join a chip-building company to produce their new CPU.
MOS was a small rm with good credentials in the right
area, the east coast of the USA. The team of four design
engineers was headed by Chuck Peddle and included Bill
Mensch. At MOS they set about building a new CPU
that would outperform the 6800 while being similar to
it in purpose. The resulting 6501 design was somewhat
similar to the 6800, but by using several simplications
in the design, the 6501 would be up to 4 times faster.

1.1

1.2 6502 family

Main article: MOS Technology 6502
When the 6501 was announced, Motorola launched a lawsuit almost immediately. Although the 6501 instruction
set was not compatible with the 6800, it could nevertheless be plugged into existing motherboard designs because it had the same functional pin arrangement and IC
package footprint. That was enough to allow Motorola to
sue. Sales of the 6501 basically stopped, and the lawsuit
would drag on for many years before MOS was eventually
forced to pay $200,000 USD in nes.
In the meantime MOS had started selling the 6502, a chip
capable of operating at 1 MHz in September 1975 for a
mere $25 USD. It was nearly identical to the 6501, with
only a few minor dierences: an added on-chip clock oscillator, a dierent functional pinout arrangement, generation of the SYNC signal (supporting single-instruction
stepping), and removal of data bus enablement control
signals (DBE and BA, with the former directly connected
to the phase 2 clock instead).[1] It outperformed the morecomplex 6800 and Intel 8080, but cost much less and was

Mask xing

In addition to a good design, MOS had a secret weapon:

the ability to x its masks. Masks are the large drawings of the chip that are photo-reduced to make the pattern from which chips are madea process similar to
photocopying. All masks end up with aws, both as a
result of design problems in the chip itself, as well as side
1

2
easier to work with. Although it did not have the 6501s
advantage of being able to be used in place of the Motorola 6800 in existing hardware, it was so inexpensive
that it quickly became more popular than the 6800, making that a moot point.

Image of the circuit board of a Commodore 64 showing some

important MOS Technology circuits: the 6510 CPU (long chip,
lower left) and the 6581 SID (right). The production week/year
(WWYY) of each chip is given below its name.

HISTORY

being released, MOSs entire calculator IC market collapsed, and its prior existing products stopped shipping.
Soon they were in serious nancial trouble. Another company, Commodore Business Machines (CBM), had invested heavily in the calculator market and was also nearly
wiped out by TIs entry into the market. A fresh injection
of capital saved CBM, and allowed it to invest in company
suppliers in order to help ensure their IC supply would not
be upset in this fashion again. Among the several companies were LED display manufacturers, power controllers,
and suppliers of the driver chips, including MOS.
In late 1976, CBM purchased MOS outright[3][4] on the
condition that Chuck Peddle would join Commodore
as chief engineer. The deal went through, and while
the rm basically became Commodores production arm,
they continued using the name MOS for some time so that
manuals would not have to be reprinted. After a while
MOS became the Commodore Semiconductor Group
(CSG). Despite being renamed to CSG, all chips produced were still stamped with the old MOS logo until
1989.

MOS had previously designed a simple computer kit

called the KIM-1, primarily to show o the 6502
chip. At Commodore, Peddle convinced the owner, Jack
The 6502 was so cheap that many people believed it was Tramiel, that calculators were a dead end, and that home
a scam when MOS rst showed[2] it at a 1975 trade show. computers would soon be huge.
They were not aware of MOSs masking techniques and
when they calculated the price per chip at the current in- However, the original design group appeared to be even
dustry yield rates, it did not add up. But any hesitation to less interested in working for Jack Tramiel than it had for
buy it evaporated when both Motorola and Intel dropped Motorola, and the team quickly started breaking up. One
the prices on their own designs from $179 to $69 at the result was that the newly completed 6522 (VIA) chip was
same show in order to compete. Their moves legitimized left undocumented for years.
the 6502, and by the shows end, the wooden barrel full Bill Mensch left MOS even before the Commodore
of samples was empty.
takeover, and moved home to Mesa, AZ from MOSs
The 6502 would quickly go on to be one of the most pop- Norristown, PA. After a short stint consulting for a local
ular chips of its day. A number of companies licensed the company called ICE, he set up the Western Design Center
650x line from MOS, including Rockwell International, (WDC) in 1978. As a licensee of the 6502 line, their rst
products were bug-xed, power-ecient CMOS versions
GTE, Synertek, and Western Design Center (WDC).
of the 6502 (the 65C02, both as a separate chip and emA number of dierent versions of the basic CPU, known bedded inside a microcontroller called the 65C150). But
as the 6503 through 6507, were oered in 28-pin pack- then they expanded the line greatly with the introduction
ages for lower cost. The various models removed signal of the 65816, a fairly straightforward 16-bit upgrade of
or address pins. Far and away the most popular of these the original 65C02 that could also run in 8-bit mode for
was the 6507, which was used in the Atari 2600 and Atari compatibility. Since then WDC moved much of the origdisk drives. The 6504 was sometimes used in printers. inal MOS catalog to CMOS, and the 6502 continued to
MOS also released a series of similar CPUs using exter- be a popular CPU for the embedded systems market, like
nal clocks, which added a 1 to the name in the third medical equipment and car dashboard controllers.
digit, as the 6512 through 6515. These were useful in systems where the clock support was already being provided
on the motherboard by some other source. The nal ad- 1.4 GMT Microelectronics
dition was the crossover 6510, used in the Commodore
64, with additional I/O ports.
After Commodores bankruptcy in 1994, Commodore
Semiconductor Group, MOSs successor, was bought
by its former management for about $4.3 million, plus
1.3 Commodore Semiconductor Group
an additional $1 million to cover miscellaneous expenses including EPA license. Dennis Peasenell became
However successful the 6502 was, the company itself was CEO. In December 1994, EPA entered into a Prospechaving problems. At about the same time the 6502 was tive Purchase Agreement (limiting the companys liabil-

3
ity in exchange for sharing the costs of cleanup) with
GMT Microelectronics. In 1995, the company, operating under the name GMT Microelectronics (Great
Mixed-signal Technologies), reopened MOS Technologies original, circa-1970 one-micrometre fab in Norristown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania that Commodore had closed in 1992. GMT would have provided foundry services based on TelComs Bipolar and
SiCr Thin Film Resistor processes and would have been
licensed alternate sources for TelComs Bipolar based
products. With production running at 10000 wafers (size
5) per month, producing CMOS BiCMOS NMOS BIPOLAR SOI. The plant had been on the EPAs National
Priorities List of hazardous waste sites since 1989. By
1999 it had $21 million in revenues and 183 employees, within 3 years. However, in 2001 the EPA shut the
plant down due to the leaking of their underground hazardous waste storage tanks. The leaks from these tanks
caused the local groundwater to become contaminated
with trichloroethylene (TCE) and other volatile organic
compounds (VOCs). GMT ceased operations and was
liquidated.

Products
KIM-1 single board computer (kit)/CPU evaluation board, based on 6502
MOS Technology 4510 CPU (CSG 65CE02) with
two CIAs on-chip; 3.45 MHz
MOS Technology 5719 Gary Gate Array
MOS Technology 6501 CPU pin-compatible with
Motorola 6800
MOS Technology 6502 CPU equal to 6501 except
no 6800-pin-compatibility
MOS Technology 65CE02 CPU derived from the
6502
MOS Technology 6503 CPU with 12 address pins,
NMI pin and IRQ pin
MOS Technology 6504 CPU with 13 address pins
and IRQ pin
MOS Technology 6505 CPU with 12 address pins,
IRQ pin and RDY pin.

MOS Technology 6520 PIA Peripheral Interface

Adapter
MOS Technology 6522 VIA Versatile Interface
Adapter
MOS Technology TPI TPI Tri-Port Interface, aka
6523/6525
MOS Technology CIA CIA Complex Interface
Adapter, aka 6526/8520/8521
MOS Technology SPI SPIA Single Port Interface
Adapter, aka 6529
MOS Technology RRIOT RRIOT ROM-RAMI/O Timer, aka 6530
MOS Technology 6532 RIOT RAM-I/O Timer
MOS Technology 6545 CRTC CRT Controller
MOS Technology 6551 ACIA Asynchronous
Communications Interface Adapter
MOS Technology 6560 VIC Video Interface Chip,
(NTSC)
MOS Technology 6561 VIC Video Interface Chip,
(PAL) Revision: 101 / E
MOS Technology 6564 80-column video (intended for VIC-20)
MOS Technology 6566 VIC-II (MaxMachine)
MOS Technology 6567 VIC-II (NTSC) Revision:
R56A/R7/R8/R9
MOS Technology 6569 VIC-II (PAL) Revision:
R1/R3/R4/R5 (R1 = only 5 lumas)
MOS Technology 6570 6500/1 microcontroller on
keyboard PCB in Amiga 500 revision: 036
MOS Technology 6572 VIC-II (PAL-N)
MOS Technology 6573 VIC-II (PAL-M)
MOS Technology SID SID Sound Interface Device, aka 6581/6582/8580
MOS Technology TED TED Text Editing Device,
aka 7360/8360 (HMOS-I/II)

MOS Technology 6507 CPU with 13 address pins

MOS Technology 7501 CPU HMOS-I 6502 with

7-bit I/O port

MOS Technology 6508 CPU with 256 B RAM

and 8 I/O pins

MOS Technology 8361 AGNUS Address Generator Unit (NTSC)

MOS Technology 6509 CPU with 20 address pins

MOS Technology 8362 DENISE Display Encoder

MOS Technology 6510 CPU with clock pins and

I/O ports,

MOS Technology 8364 PAULA Port Audio

UART and Logic

4
MOS Technology 8367 AGNUS Address Generator Unit (PAL)
MOS Technology 8370 Fat AGNUS Address
Generator Unit (NTSC)
MOS Technology 8371 Fat AGNUS Address
Generator Unit (PAL)
MOS Technology 8372 ECS AGNUS Address
Generator Unit
MOS Technology 8373 ECS DENISE Display Encoder
MOS Technology 8374 AGA ALICE Address
Generator Unit
MOS Technology 8375 ECS AGNUS Address
Generator Unit
MOS Technology 8500 CPU HMOS-II Version of
6510
MOS Technology 8501 CPU HMOS-II 6502 with
7-bit I/O port
MOS Technology 8502 CPU compatible with
6510 but able to run at 2 MHz
MOS Technology 8520 CIA (Complex Interface
Adapter) 1 MHz 8520 or 2 MHz 8520A-1 in Amiga
MOS Technology 8551 ACIA Asynchronous
Communications Interface Adapter, HMOS-II variant of the 6551
MOS Technology 8562 VIC-II (NTSC)

EXTERNAL LINKS

3 Notes
[1] MOS MCS6500 Microcomputer Family Hardware Manual (Publication Number 6500-10A), January 1976, p.
41. (http://www.6502.org/documents/books/mcs6500_
family_hardware_manual.pdf)
[2] see: Introducing the 6501 and 6502
[3] http://books.google.com/books?id=xUAV0VcszIQC&
pg=PA541, Calculator Maker Integrates Downwards,
New Scientist, 9 September 1976, Volume 71, Issue
1017, page 541
[4] Commodore Buys MOS Technology, New Scientist,
September 1976

4 External links
Information on MOS' chips and their use in CBMs
computers By Ronald van Dijk
Documentation for various chips used in Commodore computers
EPA page on former MOS/CSG/GMT fabrication
facility - link validated February 4, 2006
Photos of (rare) Commodore Hardware
On the Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of
Commodore (2005), Variant Press. Covers Chuck
Peddle, the formation of MOS Technology and corporate history, and the design and promotion of the
6502.

This article is based on material taken from the Free Online Dictionary of Computing prior to 1 November 2008
MOS Technology 8563 VDC Video Display Con- and incorporated under the relicensing terms of the
troller
GFDL, version 1.3 or later.
MOS Technology 8564 VIC-II (NTSC)
MOS Technology 8565 VIC-II (PAL)
MOS Technology 8566 VIC-II (PAL)
MOS Technology 8568 VDC with composite
HSYNC, VSYNC, and RDY interrupt
MOS Technology 8701 clock generator
MOS Technology 8721 PLA
MOS Technology 8722 MMU Memory Management Unit
MOS Technology 8726 REC RAM Expansion
Controller
MOS Technology 8727 DMA Direct Memory Access

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

5.1

Text

MOS Technology Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS%20Technology?oldid=635693051 Contributors: Magnus Manske, Derek

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5.2

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5.3

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