MOS didn't really suffer any loss from the Motorola lawsuit.
What they did suffer from, however, was the shakeout of the electronic calculator market in the 1970s, before the advent and popularity of personal computers.
In that case, that would have been caused by Texas Instruments.
MOS was started by former Motorola employees. The lawsuit came because MOS made a pin compatible processor that was a cheaper alternative to the Motorola 6800, the 6501.
Motorola sued, alleging theft of their design and industry trade secrets.
MOS quickly redesigned it, creating the famous and highly successful 6502, which has the same capabilities but was not pin compatible with the 6800.
I wonder if that was MOS. MOS was originally its own company before Commodore acquired them. it is possible that what you've described may very well have been the way Commodore got MOS. It is also, indeed, a rather ruthless and, IMO, unethical way to go about doing it.
Great video, and a good example of the level of aggression behind Commodore's marketing at the time.
Jack Tramiel had said that business is war, and he meant it with his products directly attacking video games and other computers while also being more profitable due to Commodore's use of vertical integration in its manufacturing.
@OBSysteme
MOS didn't really suffer any loss from the Motorola lawsuit.
What they did suffer from, however, was the shakeout of the electronic calculator market in the 1970s, before the advent and popularity of personal computers.
In that case, that would have been caused by Texas Instruments.
Watcher3223 3 months ago
@OBSysteme
Not exactly.
MOS was started by former Motorola employees. The lawsuit came because MOS made a pin compatible processor that was a cheaper alternative to the Motorola 6800, the 6501.
Motorola sued, alleging theft of their design and industry trade secrets.
MOS quickly redesigned it, creating the famous and highly successful 6502, which has the same capabilities but was not pin compatible with the 6800.
Watcher3223 3 months ago
@OBSysteme
I wonder if that was MOS. MOS was originally its own company before Commodore acquired them. it is possible that what you've described may very well have been the way Commodore got MOS. It is also, indeed, a rather ruthless and, IMO, unethical way to go about doing it.
Watcher3223 3 months ago
They not only made computers, they also made a lot of their own parts that went into them, including the processors.
As Commodore had owned MOS Technology, they also supplied processors for a few of their competitors, particularly Atari.
While Commodore wasn't the only reason for the video game crash, they were one of the reasons as they helped precipitate a shake out of the industry.
Watcher3223 4 months ago
Great video, and a good example of the level of aggression behind Commodore's marketing at the time.
Jack Tramiel had said that business is war, and he meant it with his products directly attacking video games and other computers while also being more profitable due to Commodore's use of vertical integration in its manufacturing.
Watcher3223 4 months ago