A friend of mine told me that he has news about old Commodore controlled chip factory named MOS Technology.

Mos Technology is also known as Commodore Semiconductor Group

The entire old MOS Tech. factory complex of buildings is to be demolished...

In the warehouse there are a vaste quantitiy of chips, but unfortunately these have to be checked if functioning or not, because in the past there were an huge flood that damaged all stocks of materials present in the warehouse.

So these chips will be not sold, but given for free if someone wants to pickup and take away entire stock of materials.

These news got me astonished. I knew nothing about it.

Is there anyone confirming these news???

Is there anyone who could see if it is real that the entire stock of spare parts in MOS Tech warehouses will be given for free or destroyed?

Remember that in the MOS warehouse there should be vaste quantities of CIA Chips 8520 good to be re-used as Amiga CIA spare parts...

Please check these news as soon as possible, or else it will be ALL DESTROYED!

Last edited by Raffaele on 18-Mar-2008 at 06:45 PM.
Last edited by Raffaele on 18-Mar-2008 at 06:37 PM.
Last edited by Raffaele on 18-Mar-2008 at 06:30 PM.

_________________
"When the Amiga came out, everyone [at Apple] was scared as hell." (J.L. Gassée, former CEO of Apple France and chief of devs of Mac II-fx, interviewed by Amazing Computing, Nov 1996).

@Raffaele

Please send all SID chips to me :)

@Kicko

Latest news I found with a little google search:

http://www.commodore.ca/text/mos.htm

http://www.epa.gov/reg3hwmd/super/sites/PAD093730174/index.htm

http://www.epa.gov/reg3hscd/npl/PAD093730174.htm

Quote:

- The EPA is overseeing the cleanup of the Commodore Semiconductor Group site. Construction of the groundwater extraction and treatment system began in the fall of 1999. In February 2000, pipelines and underground wiring were installed, pumps were installed at each of the extraction wells, and the treatment building was constructed. The treatment process equipment was installed in May 2000. Preliminary start-up and testing of the system began in August 2000. The system started operations in September 2000 to remove volatile organic compounds (VOCs), the chemical components of solvents and degreasers, from the groundwater using several filtration and evaporation techniques. The treated groundwater is discharged to the Audubon Water Company’s distribution system for public water.

Quote:

Current Site Status Construction of a groundwater treatment system was completed in August 2000. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is overseeing current cleanup activities at the Commodore Semiconductor Group site by the Potentially Responsible Party (PRP), Rockwell Automation formerly known as Allen-Bradley, LLC. The remedy for the site included, among other things, a groundwater pump and treat system and the extension of an existing waterline to twelve residences along Rittenhouse and Audubon Roads. The waterline extension was formerly turned over to the Audubon Water Company. The system pumps and treats approximately 85 gallons per minute of contaminated groundwater. Rockwell conducts groundwater sampling semi-annually to monitor the effectiveness of the groundwater treatment system.

Quote:

In September 2003, Rockwell Automation completed additional work to enhance and speed up the groundwater treatment. This enhanced treatment (ET) included the installation of a full-scale vapor extraction system to remove chemical vapors from the soil and bedrock, and chemical oxidation to treat residual contaminant levels in soil near and beneath the building. Rockwell continues to coordinate with EPA and PADEP and intends to continue acclerating cleanup. Based on the positive results from the ET, Rockwell Automation will be further investigating contamination beneath the existing building. In August 2005, EPA completed the First Five-Year Review of the remedy and found that the implemented remedy is currently protective in the short-term as there is no current expsosure to Site COCs and that long-term protectiveness of the remedy will be achieved by continuing to pump and treat the groundwater and maintaining effective institutional controls until cleanup standards are achieved.

Site of MOS Tech is in Pennsylvania

Quote:

The Commodore Semiconductor Group site, which is located in Norristown, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania

Anyone in that place who could perform a survey?

Is anyone interested in old MOS Chips?

I wonder if DiscreetFX could be interested in it, or perhaps Individual Computers who builds Catweasel cards...

Site contacs:

http://www.epa.gov/reg3hscd/super/sites/PAD093730174/index.htm#Contacts

Last edited by Raffaele on 18-Mar-2008 at 06:44 PM.

_________________
"When the Amiga came out, everyone [at Apple] was scared as hell." (J.L. Gassée, former CEO of Apple France and chief of devs of Mac II-fx, interviewed by Amazing Computing, Nov 1996).

@Raffaele


Quote:

In the warehouse there are a vaste quantitiy of chips, but unfortunately these have to be checked if functioning or not, because in the past there were an huge flood that damaged all stocks of materials present in the warehouse.

Quote:

Remember that in the MOS warehouse there should be vaste quantities of CIA Chips 8520 good to be re-used as Amiga CIA spare parts...

But, really, what is the commercial worth, to anybody, of a bunch of CIA chips that may or may not even be working.

To the odd one or two Amigans left with a system which have broken CIA chips I can see a possible value for o few of these chips, but I don't see anybody being interested in buying the whole stock!

@Pleng

I called and one of the managers won't be back in the office until the 19th or so.

I can call back and express an interest but I live in Pennsylvania and I'm in the area so I can help out.

@Chuckt

Quote:

I can call back and express an interest but I live in Pennsylvania and I'm in the area so I can help out

its been my understanding that anything "Amiga or Commodore" related were removed long long ago. The info given to me many years ago might be wrong.

I do know for sure a new company came out of the former MOS site and they manufactured a line of semi they developed.

Last edited by Interesting on 18-Mar-2008 at 09:25 PM.

_________________
"The system no longer works " -- Young Anakin Skywalker

@all

For the history buffs....

Link to the PDF of what will be built in the former Mos tech site.

Page one of the pdf shows that a skater park will be built there.

_________________
"The system no longer works " -- Young Anakin Skywalker

@Interesting

Skater park, hehe... Perhaps Amiga inc should sponsor that

_________________

I could sure use some sids so i dont have to strip one of my c64's of its precious to get a sid2sid

_________________
C= Amiga addict
,,,
(Oo)
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Couldn't care less what other people think, seeing that there's concrete evidence they don't.

@Chuckt

Quote:

@Pleng I called and one of the managers won't be back in the office until the 19th or so. I can call back and express an interest but I live in Pennsylvania and I'm in the area so I can help out.

Um... what?

I contacted the owner of the Commodore MOS building yesterday and we briefly talked. He asked me to contact the real estate agent.

I contacted the real estate agent and after stating my business, he said that the Commodore MOS building was completely gutted 8-10 years ago and even the partitions were taken out. He said that you can't even tell what went on in there.

To change the subject: According to the Commodore History Museum website, there is a history of a tank under the Commodore MOS building that was leaking and the EPA added the Commodore site to the list of hazardous waste sites needing cleanup and when GMT Microelectronics bought the building, the EPA opened up talks with them at some point.

You already have an expensive building needing cleanup and I'm not sure what the costs of cleanup and excavation and repair of the building would be but they put in underground piping, pumps and wiring to extract water from underneath the building and it sounds like a very involved and expensive process of filtration and evaporation. That kind of work needs a building engineer, inspectors and companies to do that kind of work because you need trained contractors who know what they are doing and not just anybody because they are dealing with a cleanup. EPA fines can go very high to a million dollars or more and there is also the litigation that can come along with it so it might be enough for any investor to be scared because they don't know me from the government. That may be why they don't want anyone in there and why they are concerned or feel agitated to talk to someone and they may feel hurt because we don't know if they knew what they were getting into because the truth may have been minimized to them when they bought the building so it is a natural reaction for fear to come in and for anyone wanting to limit their liability or exposure. Who knows what all of this did to their insurance because what kind of insurance would you have to buy for a hazardous waste site? Who would insure that? It is an open liability and this is a dead end.

http://www.commodore.ca/history/company/mos/mos_technology.htm

@Chuckt

Quote:

http://www.commodore.ca/history/company/mos/mos_technology.htm

Why can't I resolve anything for the commodore.ca domain?

tiffers

Last edited by tiffers on 04-Apr-2008 at 04:59 AM.

@tiffers

It seems to be a bit slow. It took me two attempts to resolve the page linked to just above your post.

_________________
Test sig (new)

@_Steve_

Quote:

It seems to be a bit slow. It took me two attempts to resolve the page linked to just above your post.

Hmm. I'm getting this error: Name Server for domain 'www.commodore.ca' is unavailable.

A whois returns valid NS server names and IP addresses for them. If I tell nslookup to use one of these IP's everything resolves ok.

However it seems my DNS server isn't getting the IPs for the servers from the Canadian domain registrar, and thus lookups are failing.

I thought originally that maybe commodore.ca were old links to the official Commodore site, which had obviously died, but I've seen too many references to it lately about new stuff.

I'm stumped why my named server isn't getting the server IPs for the domain

tiffers

@tiffers

Try pinging the domain name first then hit the web page. That worked for me. Not sure why, maybe the ping updates the rarp table.

Plaz

Last edited by Plaz on 05-Apr-2008 at 12:41 PM.

Oiginal news that MOS TECH site was to be demolished here in Italy cames 2 or 3 months ago from Mr. Stefano Buonocore (remember him? He is the man who want to realize "The secret of Middle City" adventure.

Do not ask me who is the source of the news of Mr. Buonocore. I ignore it. He just said me he received news that MOS TECH site was about to be destroyed and that there were plenty of boxes with chips still in some basements.

But I have another proof.

Another Amigan friend of mine here in Italy (Mr. Claudio La Rosa) contacted a person involved in the cleaning of the MOSTECH site.

Here is an excerpt from the mail he received:


Quote:

Hi Claudio: I have worked on a groundwater clean-up of the former Commodore Business Machines property for the last 7 years. I have a few photographs of the building as it is today (see attachments). Unfortunately, there are no Commodore signs on the building because it was taken over by a company named GMT Micro Electronics during the 1990’s. I have seen old Commodore equipment in the basement of the building, although most of it was damaged during flooding after the building was abandoned in 2001. I did find an unopened accounting software package in the basement last year. There is a new owner of the property and they plan on demolishing the building in the next few years to make way for new construction. I will send you a separate e-mail with a copy of the building plan that shows the side views of the building when first constructed for MOS Technologies in 1970. MOS was later acquired by Commodore. It is of very poor quality because the original is a faded blueprint. I hope this helps. Your English is fine. I can’t claim to speak Italian. Ciao, John

You can find the original discussion here (in italian language) on the pages of AmigaNews Ikirsector Italia:

http://amiga.ikirsector.it/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11074

Google translate it for a simple (almost unuseful) understanding of the entire italian discussion.

Stating from the mail seems that there are no boxes of chips in the basement, but old equipment, damaged by a flood.

If there are equipment for manufacturing chips, then it could be really interesting for a computer museum.

Last edited by Raffaele on 05-Apr-2008 at 11:28 PM.
Last edited by Raffaele on 05-Apr-2008 at 11:22 PM.

_________________
"When the Amiga came out, everyone [at Apple] was scared as hell." (J.L. Gassée, former CEO of Apple France and chief of devs of Mac II-fx, interviewed by Amazing Computing, Nov 1996).

@Raffaele

Sad that. I was only referring today to MOS as I have just acquired Commodore 3000H which is mentioned amongst Commodore's Secret Weapons...

See my scuzzblog

http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com/amiga/scuzzblog0808.htm

I also just read this for historical ref:

1977: Commodore acquires MOS Technology, making the KIM-1 the first Commodore computer. Commodore also acquire, as part of this takeover, Chuck Peddle.

Interesting

scuzz
http://www.commodore-amiga-retro.com

@Raffaele

Quote:

Raffaele wrote: Stating from the mail seems that there are no boxes of chips in the basement, but old equipment, damaged by a flood. If there are equipment for manufacturing chips, then it could be really interesting for a computer museum.

The Real Estate agent that I talked to knew more about what he was saying than I knew what he was saying. I can't put a time reference on what he said but the current owner came in and 'considered it trash' so he may have been talking about when he got the building 8-10 years ago. It almost sounds like what he said almost corresponds to the flood that I can't validate. I'm just trying to piece together what the Real Estate agent said so that it would make sense to me and I know what he said but not what he may have meant.

I do know that Commodore set aside money to keep up on the building to make it attractive to buyers according to an article that I read from the link I provided earlier.

Last edited by Chuckt on 06-Apr-2008 at 06:12 AM.

@Plaz

Quote:

Try pinging the domain name first then hit the web page. That worked for me. Not sure why, maybe the ping updates the rarp table.

One first needs a dns server which successfully resolves an address to ping. Mine isn't working. I cannot see why it's not. In the debug output, it seems it's requesting an AAAA (IPv6) record for the host, but is not requesting an A (IPv4) record.

Does anyone here know the owner of the domain? I'd be interested to know if it's on an IPv4 or IPv6 network, and what OS / name daemon software is being used for their DNS server.

tiffers

A user named Tone007 at Amiga.org actually took these pictures.

The link can be found here.

The only pictures I posted are found here.

Link

Last edited by Chuckt on 22-Apr-2008 at 10:55 AM.
Last edited by Chuckt on 22-Apr-2008 at 10:53 AM.
Last edited by Chuckt on 22-Apr-2008 at 10:52 AM.