Q&A with the Co-Creator of the 6502 | Hacker News Reader

Q&A with the Co-Creator of the 6502

spectrum.ieee.org

50 pointsklelatti10 comments

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Might also be of interest, an interview with the head designer of the 6502:

The Amp Hour Podcast #241 An Interview With Chuck Peddle – Charismatic Chipmaking Coryphaeus

https://theamphour.com/241-an-interview-with-chuck-peddle-ch...

Subtitle : Bill Mensch on the microprocessor that powered the Atari 2600 and Commodore 64

Suggested new title : Q&A with Bill Mensch, the Co-Creator of the 6502.

It was the Atari ST, not the 2600

What? The 6502 is in the Atari 2600. The Atari ST had a 68000.

As long at we're naming Ataris, the Atari 400/800 home computers and the 5200 all used the 6502.

Atari 2600 had the mos 6507, a cheaper 6502 with less address lines

> TI: After MOS Technology, in 1978 you founded The Western Design Center, where you created the 65C816 CPU. The creators of the ARM processor credit a visit to WDC as giving them the confidence to design their own chip. Do you remember that visit?

B>M: Vividly! Sophie Wilson and Steve Furber visited me and talked to me about developing a 32-bit chip. They wanted to leapfrog what Apple was rumored to be up to. But I was just finishing up the '816, and I didn't want to change horses. So when they [had success with the ARM] I was cheering them on because it wasn't something I wanted to do. But I did leave them with the idea of, "Look, if I can do it here … there are two of you; there's one of me."

When you've got a rare individual who can accomplish something that was otherwise regarded as requiring a team, it's good not to underestimate their potential.

Made me think of the Herman Hauser quote:

“When we decided to do a microprocessor, in hindsight, I think I made two great decisions, I trusted the team, and gave them two things that Intel and Motorola had never given their people: the first was no money and the second was no people..”

That’s a deceptively deep comment from Mr Hauser. It might come across as glib at first but it’s not.

I’ve seen many projects fail through hitting the Mythical Man Month.

It’s can good intention from management to throw people at a project but those lines of communication can cripple it right from the start.

Completely agree. Also clear that HH kept out of their way which is a lesson for many managers.

I'd also add that they had two more things - no legacy and no customers - so no-one to demand backwards compatibility which hindered the other firms.

I actually attended one of the first public outings for the first Arm CPU - in 1986 I think - we couldn't quite believe that this tiny team had built a 32 bit CPU from scratch. Of course history kind of repeated itself later when Arm Ltd was spun out and had almost no cash and almost no people (or 12 to be precise)!

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