I'm having a little difficulty following your line of reasoning, but here goes. MOS Technology was not purchased by CBM until they'd fallen on hard times--and it didn't take them long with their pricing. ISTR that CBM bought MOS Tech around 1976 (the 6502 came out in 1975).
Pricing isn't a matter "lying" or "telling the truth". If it were just a matter similar to selling turnips (Price = Cost of goods + Profit), we'd have thousands of successful semiconductor firms. The problem is that you have to build in enough profit so that you can fund future development--and reworking a fab is very expensive--without impacting your sales. MOS Technology severely missed that mark and priced their product too low. While they could make a small profit, they couldn't advance production and R&D to bring out a future competitive product. Add to that the collapse of the domestic market for calculators and watches and the combination was lethal.
No, the basic engineering on your 8051 was done in the early 80's by Intel. Freescale has its own problems not related to pricing or technical issues. It was the target of an LBO by Blackstone and so has a huge debt burden, which affects their ability to raise further capital for R&D. Freescale is actually beating market expectations.
Target markets are another thing. Freescale appears to be concentrating on high-end applications, which your little 8051 chip can't touch.
AJAAJAJAJ. I've never said that an 8051 core is likely to beat a 32 Bit Power PC or an automotive MCP555 with 2 TPUS.
But the 8051 I'm using is one instruction per cicle
(80515). It's the improved Intel classic.
The MIPS througthput is superb for an 8 bit micro. And most embeed applications fits (at least have fitted) in 8 bit micros.
That's what I'm talking, and where the biggest portfolio is offered. I've worked in embeed apps and never seen a system using a 32 bit procesor/micro. So ... I don't know if working on high end micros is profiteable for a silicon company at that moment and thinking in the embeed market, of course. Computing is completely different thing.
I've used Freescale 8bit, Silabs 8bit, Microchip 14,16 and 18F and even the 32 bit MCP555 from freescale. Also with an ARM7 core from Atmel. Let me say that many people hate Freescale because it keeps discontinuing parts, turning old designs in sh*t.
If you wrote an app, you need to migrate to the modern equiv part. And they are not in the pole position rigth now ....
The new extreme low power micros are the trend ... and Texas started two years before its competitors ... Again, this are not high end micros
Perhaps your are rigth with MOS, that the low price caused a long term financial break ... Thinking in that way makes sense ... but still think that Motorola 6800 price was driven by it's market hegemony during the first time .. until other competitors started to appear.