Chuck Peddle | |
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.jpg) Peddle in 2013 | |
| Born | Charles Ingerham Peddle (1937-11-25)November 25, 1937 |
| Died | December 15, 2019(2019-12-15) (aged 82)[1] Santa Cruz, California, U.S. |
| Other names | Chuck Peddle |
| Education | B.Sc.;University of Maine |
| Occupation | Electrical engineer |
| Years active | 1970–2015 |
| Known for |
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| Notable work | |
Charles Ingerham Peddle[2] (November 25, 1937 – December 15, 2019)[3] was an Americanelectrical engineer best known as the main designer of theMOS Technology 6502 microprocessor, theKIM-1single-board computer, and its successor, theCommodore PETpersonal computer, both based on the 6502.[1][4][5][6]
Peddle was born inBangor, Maine,United States on November 25, 1937. He worked in aradio station while in high school.[4]
In 1955, Peddle joined theUnited States Marine Corps. He attended theUniversity of Maine where he earned aBachelor of Science (B.Sc.) degree inengineering physics. Afterward, he went to work forGeneral Electric working withtime-sharing systems.[4]
In 1973, Peddle worked atMotorola on developing the6800 processor.[4]
Peddle recognized a market for a very low price microprocessor and began to champion such a design to complement the $300 Motorola 6800. His efforts were frustrated by Motorola management and he was told to drop the project. He then left forMOS Technology, where he headed the design of the650x family of processors; these were made as a $25 answer to theMotorola 6800. The most famous member of the 650x series was the 6502, developed in 1975, which was priced at 15% of the cost of anIntel 8080, and was subsequently used in many commercial products, including theApple II,PET,VIC-20,Atari 8-bit computers,arcade video games,Oric computers, and theBBC Micro.[4][7] TheAtari 2600 uses the closely related6507 CPU, theCommodore 64 uses the also closely related derivative6510, and theNintendo Entertainment System uses acustom ASIC which includes an altered 6502 core (with the decimal mode deleted).
In 1980, Peddle left MOS Technology, together withCommodore Business Machines (CBM) financer Chris Fish, to foundSirius Systems Technology. There, Peddle designed theVictor 9000 personal computer.[7]
Peddle, along with the 6502's co-designerBill Mensch, are regarded as personal computer pioneers, in that both the 6502 technology andbusiness model were instrumental in helping launch the personal computer revolution. After Peddle's death, Mensch wrote in memoriam.[8][9][10]
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