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Who knew that Chariot had a microcomputer revolutionary connected to a consultant on our staff? Turns out, we do.
Bill Mensch co-invented the 6502 processor, the chip that launched the Apple 1, Commodore VIC-20, and many other devices – and he did it all in our backyard at MOS Technology in King of Prussia, PA. Today we interview Chariot consultant Rod Biresch and his uncle Bill Mensch to discuss his role in the founding of the microcomputer revolution.
This is part 1 of a multi-part series.
Recommended Content
- Bill Mensch’s oral history on the Computer History Museum
- Posts on the 65xx boards and working with machine language opcodes by Rod Biresch
- The book on Commodore: Company on the Edge – first several chapters go into detail of the birth of the 6502 and Bill’s involvement, from the author’s perspective.
- Fire in the Valley – another history of the personal computer – more thorough, goes back to the Altair and other CPUs. Good for overall background.
- The KIM1
- The 4004 chip history – the first major chip Bill’s team was competing against (it was from Intel)
- The 6800 chip from Motorola – the one they designed before leaving to go to MOS Technology
- Some background on the project Bill was working on – researching fusion reaction computations for Dr. RN Carlisle. Not sure if this is the one but it is representative of the professor’s work