Editing Motorola 6809 (section)

===6800 and 6502===
The [[Motorola 6800]] was designed beginning in 1971 and released in 1974. In overall design terms, it has a strong resemblance to other CPUs that were designed from the start as 8-bit designs, like the [[Intel 8080]].{{efn|In contrast to other early CPU designs that attempted to emulate [[minicomputer]] instruction sets and were much more complex.}} It was initially fabricated using early [[NMOS logic]], which normally required several different [[power supply]] voltages. A key feature was an on-chip [[voltage doubler]] that allowed it to run on a single {{val|+5 |u=V}} supply, a major advantage over its competitors like the 8080 which required {{val|-5 |u=V}}, {{val|+5 |u=V}}, and {{val|+12 |u=V}}.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.cpu-world.com/info/Pinouts/8080.html |title=8080A microprocessor - DIP 40 package |website=CPU World |access-date=2021-01-30 |archive-date=2021-01-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210112125109/https://www.cpu-world.com/info/Pinouts/8080.html |url-status=live }}</ref>

The 6800 was initially fabricated using the then-current [[contact lithography]] process. In this process, the [[photomask]] is placed in direct contact with the [[Wafer (electronics)|wafer]], exposed, and then lifted off. There was a small chance that some of the etching material would be left on the wafer when it was lifted, causing future chips patterned with the mask to fail. For complex multi-patterned designs like a CPU, this led to about 90% of the chips failing when tested. To make a profit on the small number of chips that did work, the prices for the working models had to be fairly high, on the order of hundreds of dollars in small quantities.<ref name=milestone>{{cite web |url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/moores-law-milestones |title=Moore's Law Milestones |website=IEEE |date=30 April 2015 |access-date=30 January 2021 |archive-date=24 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200224213400/https://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-history/silicon-revolution/moores-law-milestones |url-status=live }}</ref>

Some of the 6800's designers were convinced that a lower-cost system would be key to widespread acceptance. Notable among them was [[Chuck Peddle]], who was sent on sales trips and saw prospective customers repeatedly reject the design as being too expensive for their intended uses. He began a project to produce a much less costly design, but Motorola's management proved uninterested and eventually told him to stop working on it. Peddle and some other members of the 6800 team left Motorola for [[MOS Technology]] and introduced this design in 1975 as the [[MOS Technology 6502]].<ref>{{Cite interview |title=Oral History of Chuck Peddle |last= Peddle |first= Chuck |interviewer = Doug Fairbairn and Stephen Diamond |date=12 June 2014 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enHF9lMseP8  |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/enHF9lMseP8| archive-date=2021-12-11 |url-status=live|ref=CITEREFInterview2014}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

The 6800 was initially sold at {{US$|long=no|360}} in single-unit quantities,<ref name = "MC6850 1975">{{Cite journal | title = Motorola microprocessor set is 1 MHz n-MOS | journal = Control Engineering | volume = 21 | issue = 11 | page =11 | date = November 1974}} MC6800 microprocessor price was $360. The MC6850 asynchronous communications interface adaptor (ACIA) was slated for first quarter 1975 introduction.</ref> but had been lowered to {{US$|long=no|295}}. The 6502 was introduced at {{US$|long=no|25}},<ref name = "6502 Computer Sep 1975">{{Cite journal | title = MOS 6502 the second of a low cost high performance microprocessor family | journal = Computer | volume = 8 | issue = 9 | pages = 38–39 | publisher = IEEE Computer Society | date = September 1975 | url = http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MOS_6501_6502_Ad_Sept_1975.jpg | doi = 10.1109/C-M.1975.219074 | access-date = 2021-01-30 | archive-date = 2021-02-24 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210224154043/https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MOS_6501_6502_Ad_Sept_1975.jpg | url-status = live }}</ref> and Motorola immediately reduced  the 6800 to $125. It remained uncompetitive and sales prospects dimmed. The introduction of the [[Micralign]] to Motorola's lines allowed further reductions and by 1981 the price of the then-current 6800P was slightly less than the equivalent 6502, at least in single-unit quantities.{{sfnb|Ancrona|1981}} By that point, however, the 6502 had sold tens of millions of units and the 6800 had been largely forgotten.