Motorola 6800

Summary

The Galvin Manufacturing Corporation was founded in 1928 and builds “Motorola” car radios. “Motor” stands for cars and “ola” is supposed to remind you of music. The devices are so popular that the company renames itself in Motorola. As the US company also produces transistors, and Intel is already developing successful CPUs, Motorola announces its own product in March 1974. The Motorola 6800 microprocessor was released in the same year.

At USD 175, the 6800 is quite expensive, so that the microprocessor only occurs in a few systems. The CPU can be found in electronic pinball machines from Bally and Williams, the console APF MP1000 or the MITS computer Altair 680. As MOS Technology responds with the 6502 CPU Motorola has to lower the price, but the CPU first-line remains a commercial failure, it looks a bit better with the successor 6809. Motorola makes really big profits only with the 68000.