Did any body ever use a 6800 cpu on the Apple I mother board?
Does 6800 even work?
The 6800 is neither electrically nor software compatible with the 6502, so it seems unlikely.
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Provision was designed-in, electrically, although in yesterday’s articles I see the claim that it was never used. (That’s unverifiable!) Indeed, you’d need a 6800 bootstrap and monitor.
The design would retain the ability to use a 6800, though, with space allocated on the circuit board for the Motorola design to be used in place of the 6502. However, none of the computers, later known as the Apple I, were ever adapted to use the 6800.
As seen in the video by theamazingoperaman (thanks Ben!) it’s possible to do the swap - although one extra resistor was needed, so Woz didn’t quite provide all the capability.
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There are configuration options, as in “6800 only” and “6502” parts, to be populated (and traces cut) alternatively.
Here’s an image of the “James J. Scardino” Apple 1, with the 6800-specific parts marked in orange and the 6502-specific parts in light blue.
This (what’s shown in the video) was actually in 2013. Eric Smith’s efforts for a 6800 monitor for the Apple 1 started in 2011 as a RetroChallenge project.
Compare the related articles at “Brouhaha”: apple 1 6800 | Search Results | What's All This Brouhaha?
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I see that I spoke too soon!