[Coco] 6309

[Gene Heskett]

On Monday 27 March 2017 15:53:50 tim lindner wrote:

> On Mon, Mar 27, 2017 at 11:49 AM, Gene Heskett <gheskett at shentel.net> 
wrote:
> > He did say that they did not get any masks, only permission to do a
> > cmos version clone, so their version was microcoded using their own
> > layout tools. They created a clone of the 6809 per the license, but
> > the opcode map, using their layout tools had some empty slots left.
> > And that was as close as he ever came to saying they "filled in the
> > blanks".  So like everybody else has assumed, the license prevented
> > publicly admitting to an "improved" version.
>
> I noticed that the HD6300 (Hitachi's 6800 second source part) had
> additional instructions very much like the ones they added to the
> 6309. In the 6300 data manual they were fully documented. Not secret
> at all.
>
> I can imagine (and have no sources to back this up) that Motorola was
> not pleased with this. They still needed a second source the 6809 and
> modified their contract to specifically exclude any changes from the
> spec.
>
> But Hitachi did it anyway.
>
> --
> --
> tim lindner

You may have hit it pretty square Tim. It sure makes sense.  I have the 
Hitachi book that covers the 6309, hoping I might find a secret in 
there, but I didn't know enough about the 6800 to understand that the 
6300 was an upgrade.  That book isn't on the shelves above me, so it 
must be in the basement along with the rest of my coco stuffs, or packed 
in a few boxes along with about 140 lbs of other chip books dating 
from '72 to when I retired & cleaned out my office at the tv station in 
the middle of 2002. Gee, almost 15 years ago. Sometimes it seems like it 
was just last week.
>
> "Proper User Policy apparently means Simon Says."


Cheers, Gene Heskett
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>