Vintage chips: MOS 6501

[Dan Nelson]

Any CPU buffs know how many of the MOS6501s were made?

How much would a virtually new MOS6501 (as bought in 1975) would be worth? Manuals included...

[chip68]

[CPUShack]

yah definately
I would pay $100 for one.

[wepwawet]

Wow!

That's something I relaay like to have!

But it is not in the trade/sell section:-(

Where did you find it?
Did you ever work for MOS?

[jabcs123]

Iown 1, brought back from the trade show where the first announced the
chip. Never managed to make a computer out of it

[Neon_WA]

[jrmunro]

This was a reply from Bill Mench at WDC on January 13, 2007 when I inquired some info on the 6501 from him

Hi John,
I am finally getting caught up with my emails from the holiday trip I was
on.
Both the MOS Technology 6501 and 6502 were announced and sold at the Wescon
conference in September 1975. The 6501 was sold for $20 and the 6502 for
$25. Both chips had the same circuitry with the only difference a metal
layer change to use the internal clock generator. Bonding options provided
for whatever differences were in the pinout. The 6501 was sold up until the
Motorola lawsuit was settled and MOS Technology agreed to remove the 6800
pin compatible part was removed from the marketing and sales plans of MOS
Technology. I forget when that lawsuit was settled.
I would guess there were only a few thousand 6501 chips sold before it was
removed from the market place in 1976. Only those folks that wanted to
replace the Motorola 6800 would have bought 6501 chips. Woz and others would
have bought 6502 chips at Wescon for their favorite new projects. Motorola
charged $69 for the 6800 non-overlapping clock generator. We charged an
extra $5 for the 6502 that had it built in (same cost to build as the 6501
chip) non-overlapping clock generator. Beer was free and chips cost $20
(6501) and $25 (6502) a piece in our St. Francis Hotel suite. We couldn't
sell the chips on the show floor. The show floor was an absolute madhouse
anyway with everyone wanting datasheets and whatever information they could
get their hands on.
The earliest date codes for both 6501 and 6502 would probably be around
3075. Interestingly the first 6501/6502 chip did not have the ROR
instruction which was later added (I don't recall when we added ROR) and the
programmer's card was updated. The type set of the programmer's card with
ROR indicates the addition of the ROR instruction because of the type
alignment was just a little bit off. This was before Microsoft or Microsoft
Word with "cut and past" existed!
Regards,
Bill

Dan also got an email from Chuck Peddle. Here is an excerpt from it

I have acquired a bit more insight as to the history of the MSC6501. I actually received an email from Chuck Peddle who was responsible for it all. Chuck wrote:
.............................................................................
"by contract with Motorola we stopped producing the 6501 so none really made it to market of any numbers we never intenteded anyone to buy it anyhow. It was an in your face to Motorola.
The 6502 was 5 volts only and pinned out better
It is indeed rare if pople care about it.
chuck

[allebram2]

If you are willing to sell, please contact me by PM

[Plutonium]

Very interesting information, thank you jrmunro!

According to MCS6501 I think most of forum members would like to buy it. So best way to sell it is putting to auction on this forum.

[Chiefish]

I guess you guys didnt notice this thread was started 5 years ago, and I am almost positive this was sold on ebay a long time ago. I forget the exact price but im pretty sure it went for over $1500.

[kosmokrator]

hehehe Chiefish is right......not a hope to got one today...the threat is dead......

But the additionaly info is nice....thnx John

And yeap ....much more than 1500$ worth today imo...

[CPUShack]

6501 is one of the holy grail of important CPUs.

More important then the 1801 (which in itself is pretty rasre too)

[wepwawet]

I know Dan still has his chip. He did not sell it on ebay.
There sold two on ebay, one to me and one to somebody secret. Mine is not Dan's and the other one has a gold lid.
Btw funny to see that even in such a small number there were and are package differences.

[allebram2]

The guy claiming to have one sent his post today so that is not old.

Two were sold on eBay last year and they both went for $850 +/- WepWavet bought one of them and can confirm the price.

[Chiefish]

Yes wepawet paid $800 for his, so my memory is not correct heh heh heh it wont be the last time that happens. As this thread confirms
http://www.cpu-world.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11217&highlight=6501

the second one that sold around that time was $865

but none the less this post was started a long time ago, and john added some interesting info on the chips themselves.