Is This The Most Overengineered Chip Ever Made?

In 1981, a music hobbyist named Bob Yannes, who had never designed a chip, was asked to build the sound chip for a new Commodore computer. He thought the sound chips on the market "obviously had been designed by people who knew nothing about music." So he tried to put a synthesizer on a single chip. The result was the MOS 6581, the SID. It went into the Commodore 64, which Guinness lists as the best selling desktop computer model of all time. Its filter, which Yannes called "the worst part," became the sound people still love. The chip hasn't been made since around 1992, and people are still building replacements for it. Watch the 2N3055 story, another part hobbyists still hunt for: [add link to "Is This The Most Important Transistor Ever Made?"] Did you ever own a Commodore 64? What's the first SID sound you remember? 6581 or 8580? Tell me in the comments. And if I got a date, a number or a name wrong, tell me there too. I read every comment and I pin corrections. Parts That Changed History tells the stories behind the chips, machines and parts that shaped the modern world, and the people who built them. Subscribe for a new story every day. SOURCES Interview with Bob Yannes (mirrored at landley.net) Ausretrogamer, "Interview with Bob Yannes, SID chip inventor" Wikipedia: MOS Technology 6581, Commodore 64, MOS Technology, Ensoniq Ben Eater, "The SID: Classic 8-bit sound" and "Modern SID chip substitutes" (YouTube) Adrian's Digital Basement, "I bought a C64 SID chip from AliExpress!" (YouTube) 0:00 The Sound That Defined a Generation 1:03 How a Synthesizer Actually Works 1:59 Five Hurdles to a Musical Computer 8:01 The Flaw That Made It Famous 12:59 Life After the Commodore 64 #SID #MOS6581 #Commodore64 #C64 #Synthesizer #SoundChip #Chiptune #Electronics #ElectronicsHistory #RetroComputing #Ensoniq #TechHistory #Documentary #PartsThatChangedHistory