[ronbarr]

You’re talking about the Integrated Woz Machine. It was a custom disk controller that Wozniak created that was used in the Apple ][, /// and I believe on the original Macs. It was cheap, fast and worked.

[wrs]

And a later Mac, the IIfx, introduced I/O coprocessors to run the IWM, among other things. All part of the glorious wheel of reincarnation. [0]

[0] https://www.computer-dictionary-online.org/definitions-c/cyc...

[duskwuff]

Crazier yet: the IOPs on the IIfx were 6502-based microcontrollers.

[nsxwolf]

The Integrated Woz Machine was the custom single-chip version of the Apple II floppy controller.