Abandoned Chip Fab: Bil Herd's MOS Technologies Factory Walk-Through 35 Years Later

Commodore 64 changed the world, and the 6502 processor even more so. Both were produced by MOS Technologies at their headquarters in Norristown, Pennsylvania.

That was 35 years ago, and the siren song of visiting is hold stomping ground was too much for Bil Herd to pass up. With permission of the current property owner, he recorded this video tour of the long vacant property.

The video begins with a walk through of the engineering offices of the company, but things get really interesting about two-thirds of the way through as they make their way to the basement where the chip fab was located. It's strewn with smashed equipment of the gilded-age of 8-bit computing.

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[leonardtramiel]

The first time I was in that building was in 1977. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

[winstonsmith]

I hope the Commodore Pets were rescued, regardless of their bad condition.

[padc]

Pretty amazing that there were still Commodore stuff in that building all these years later.

[odisseaskipriotis]

Sad... what a waste... a brand that refuses to die. The amiga and the c64s have a huge crowd still! Thanks for the video!

[FullMetalFab]

Great to see the inside, sad to see those smashed up PETs

[cschmidt]

Like more of this history stuff. I hope these PETs were rescued.

[tekvax]

Bil! Please post all of the shoot day footage... Please...
I love to see more...

[cheetahspot]

Please tell me you salvaged the leftover tapes and documents. They could be of historic importance.

[SwedishEmpire]

Get in there and empty it out and rescue like EVERYTHING ok

[ESquared]

Makes me sad to see, i used to dream of visiting that place as a kid.

Love your stories Bill, thanks.

[jobsgarage]

I can NOT believe the PET at Please tell me you've saved it!

[CamiloSantana]

Means a lot to me but the shaky camera and silly effects and sound means I can't share it with business associates.

[robwebnoid]

Here in 2022. It's hard to believe no one cleaned up that place for the last 35 years. I like the background creepy electronic music. I used to work at an Intel motherboard-making factory, from the mid 1990's to mid 2000's & this reminds me of it. At the end of 2020, me & family finally sold & vacated my dad's medical clinic building after he passed away & I knew I was going to miss that building as we had it for also 35 years. I also worked there. I took as many photos & videos of it. It now belongs to someone else (a lumber company), they had painted it a different color & I pass that building every now & then going to the store, thinking of happy, comfy, busy times of the past. Somewhat bittersweet too. Anyway I had already seen this video of the C= chip fab before back when it got uploaded but it was in my youtube feed today so I had to take a look again.

[ChrisFaulkner]

Bil, we need 6581 and 6502/6510 production again..

[greggv]

I would've asked the (demolition?) crew on site if they wouldn't mind if I carted off all the "e-waste" so they wouldn't have to, then loaded up the computers, those backup tapes and other bits and bobs to salvage. Never know what interesting info could be on those tapes. Design data for the SID chips?

[Skyfox]

You can almost hear the ghost of Jack Tramiel roaming the halls of the place and speaking in an otherworldly tone...."Computers for the masses, not the classes!"

[RetroAnachronist]

I’d love to see what’s on those backup tapes!

[olegpereverzev]

Just tell me you've saved the data

[electronicsworkbench]

Wow! Full user backup on 9-track tapes! Valuable history in those! Too bad chip designs were lost. Can't imagine how the SID or VIC-II would be designed today but the SID, man those were the chips!

[stddyman]

What’s with the subliminal message at 1:00?