MOS MCS 6501 CPU on Ebay - Tested Working Condition

[tcolegrove]

I just listed a MOS MCS 6501 CPU on Ebay. Auction starts at a penny with no reserve. This is the second of these rare CPU's that I've listed. Link here: https://www.ebay.com/itm/265880865883

Listing reads:

The MCS6501 is a first and very rare member of the MOS Technology 65xx CPU family. Introduced in 1975 with the MCS6502 to MCS6505, it was pin compatible with the Motorola 6800 and, after legal issues, was not produced afterwards. This particular example is date coded 4575, the 45th week of 1975. The chip is in excellent working condition and has been tested using a replica Apple-1 wired for the 6501’s dual clock. Handwritten note regarding provenance and replica apple-1 are NOT included and is only shown to establish the CPUs history and functionality. Auction is for CPU pictured only.

The MCS6501 was sold with very few microcomputers of its day. The Digital Group and Ohio Scientific sold CPU boards that were compatible and Apple Computer famously specified the MCS 6501 as one of three CPU's compatible with the Apple-1 alongside the MCS6502 and Motorola 6800. According to Steve Wozniak the earliest prototype Apple-1's were built using the 6501 for testing purposes.

I purchased this CPU from the estate of David Towson of Baltimore, MD. David spent his career at the Department of the Army Signal Corps where he purchased it, along with several others, from his co-worker Bob Winterhalter sometime in 1977. Bob Winterhalter passed away 12/27/2010. According to handwritten notes that accompanied the CPU, it was tested good 10/7/77. It's unclear what Mr. Towson had hoped to do with the 6501's, but according to a note submitted to Bucknell University by his friend Bob Nevin, David was, "an engineer who never fails to impress me with his grasp of electronic circuits and never fails to amaze me with his ability to build them and make them work." According to Bob Nevin, David was a ham radio enthusiast in his spare time." Further provenance is available upon request.

Shipped insured and with care via FedEx.

[CHips]

Insane price as always, though I feel like it is mainly driven up by Apple maniacs rather than historical significance or actual rarity...
I wonder what would be the price of C808xs if they used instead Intel Cpus in the first Apple machines...

[Williac]

Lovely specimen. Hopefully one ends up in a museum someday. I’ll bet you’re glad you decided to peddle them instead of chuck them…. 😆

And the “Apple Maniac” would have been a fantastic name for one of their systems back in the day. Especially given those bouts of mania that Jobs seemed to have.

I’m still surprised that Motorola didn’t put a bounty on these post lawsuit to gather them up. Guess it was a …MOStake?

Alright, I’m done. No more dad CPU puns for tonight. I’ll show myself out.

[cooperalp]

that's a mortgage down payment! lol

[Marcin]

[wepwawet]

Hm, I never connected it to Apple as it never ended up in one. The special interest here is the lawsuit and the short availability of it. Plus the popularity of its successor, the 6502 which also sold in the four digit range for the white pavckage.
Btw. the Apple 1 was designed to use the 6800 or the 6502, it was never designed for the 6501.

[karman]

[ZyMOS]

I know this is an old thread just wanted to correct some misinformation.

the 6501 is pin compatible with the 6800, but has a completely different instruction set. So you can use it on the same motherboard, but cant run the same software.

The 6501 and 6502 have the same instruction set, but have different pin assignments and clock. So you can run the same software, but requires different motherboards