RE: is there any easy way to upgrade a C116 to 64k

>I like the C16 since it has the BASIC and simple Assembler in the Monitor
that the C64 should have had from the beginning. TED also has a few
features VIC doesn't (hardware cursor, >hardware reverse, full 64K access,
colors, programmable counters for horizontal and vertical position).

We were accused by the head of CBM England of having made the TED the
perfect machine for pirating software.  We telexed back a simple "thank
you".  I spoke to her for the first time face to face just last summer and
made sure that there were no hard feelings about my continuing to tell the
story.  She was gracious in the ways that we are all part of a 30 year old
(dysfunctional) family are.

> - Add heatsinks to CPU, TED and PLA
> Again product life wasn't never a consideration that I found

>Yes... back then, but to keep them running now, getting as much heat off
the die is a good thing.

I used to know the temperature we were running the die at,  if I could
have save $.25 by running it 5 degrees C hotter I probably would have as
that was the incentive.  With that said my background previously had been
instrumentation and there we lived by an industrial MTBF.


>I'm also surprised how they hold up. But there are also some chips that
>seem to die easier than others. Very stable are the 6510/8500, ROMs and
>VIC in the C64, hardly ever see them fail. Especially VIC runs quite hot
>but doesn't seem to care. Then there are the PLA, SID and 8501 and 8360.
:(

Once we got the passivation problem fixed, which was especially bad on
early PLA's then we were back to more standard aging mechanisms, (heat,
heat cycle stress, etc)

The Rev 7 VIC was the first to use a Beryllium Copper Lead Frame to get
the heat out, so the outside would be hotter and the inside would be
sparkling less.


> CBM did realize they needed to get into CMOS and had broken ground on
the
> new line when I left.  I was told they never finished .

MOS did some CMOS chips, the ones I know are:

>5710   found in C128DCR, simplified CIA
>5717   Mouse 1351
>5718   Gate Array on bridge boards (A2088/...)
>5719   GARY (Amiga 500/2000B)
>5721   BUSTER (Amiga 2000B)

>I don't know if MOS made them or had them made and just stamped their
>number on the package.

We were definitely purchasing CMOS gate arrays for the LCD machine,
(someone found the missing wafers sitting in a carrier on a manger's desk
being used as a paperweight), and CBM was transitioning to full ERC/DRC
based tools and some outlandish autorouters for the gate arrays  (compared
to carefully crafted layouts) that we were sourcing.  I remember Kyocera
packaged them but I don't remember if they were also the chip fab for the
CMOS.  Meanwhile the drawers still held rubylith and the punch card reader
was in a corner of the hallway.  The LCD also got to break some of the
rules for cost at least initially for where to purchase parts, but then
was using our own LCD glass from Eagle Pitcher which we owned (Only US
glass at the time)

>I read about that... A simple phonecall 'there seems to be an error'
>would have been enough. Hard to imagine nowadays, but things were
>different back then.

Sometimes a Telex or phone call actually seem to make the problem worse
(there was a fair amount of "don't tell me how to run my office" in the
different segments)  Going there in person helped a lot, especially when
some of us learned how to curse in Japanese.  One time it almost
backfired, they wouldn't arrange for me to come back to West Chester so I
could finish a release, I had to have the West Chester office buy my
tickets and have them delivered to me personally for me to "escape".  That
was the only time I didn't have to carry 80 pounds of parts with me on the
plane.

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