Chuck Peddle
Main designer of the 6502 microprocessor and Commodore PET.
Chuck Peddle was an American electrical engineer best known as the main designer of the MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor, the KIM-1 single-board computer, and its successor, the Commodore PET personal computer. His work on the low-cost 6502 processor helped launch the personal computer revolution.
Quick Facts
- Birth Name
- Charles Ingerham Peddle
- Birth Date
- 1937-11-25
- Birth Place
- Bangor, Maine, U.S.
- Death Date
- 2019-12-15
- Death Place
- Santa Cruz, California, U.S.
- Other Names
- Chuck Peddle
- Education
- B.Sc.; University of Maine
- Occupation
- Electrical engineer
- Years Active
- 1970–2015
- Known For
- Personal computer pioneer / Sirius Systems Technology founder
- Notable Works
- 6502 microprocessor / KIM-1 single-board computer / Commodore PET
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Peddle was born in Bangor, Maine, on November 25, 1937, and worked in a radio station while in high school. After joining the United States Marine Corps in 1955, he attended the University of Maine, earning a B.Sc. in engineering physics, then worked at General Electric on time-sharing systems. In 1973, he worked at Motorola on the 6800 processor, where he recognized a market for a very low price microprocessor and championed a design to complement the $300 Motorola 6800. Frustrated by Motorola management, who told him to drop the project, he left for MOS Technology, where he headed the design of the 650x family of processors, made as a $25 answer to the Motorola 6800. The most famous member was the 6502, developed in 1975, priced at 15% of the cost of an Intel 8080, and used in many commercial products including the Apple II, PET, VIC-20, Atari 8-bit computers, arcade video games, Oric computers, and the BBC Micro. The Atari 2600 uses the closely related 6507 CPU, the Commodore 64 uses the derivative 6510, and the Nintendo Entertainment System uses a custom ASIC with an altered 6502 core (decimal mode deleted). In 1980, Peddle left MOS Technology with Commodore Business Machines financier Chris Fish to found Sirius Systems Technology, where he designed the Sirius 1 / Victor 9000 8088-based personal computer.
Reader's Guide
Peddle, along with the 6502's co-designer Bill Mensch, are regarded as personal computer pioneers. The article states that both the 6502 technology and business model were instrumental in helping launch the personal computer revolution. The 6502's drastically lower cost—$25 versus $300 for the Motorola 6800 and 15% of the Intel 8080's price—enabled its widespread adoption in early personal computers, game consoles, and arcade machines. This affordability made computing accessible to a broader market, directly influencing the rise of systems like the Apple II, Commodore PET, and Atari 2600. Peddle's later work at Sirius Systems Technology on the Sirius 1 / Victor 9000 extended his impact into the IBM PC-compatible era. After his death, Mensch wrote a memoriam (noting the incorrect spelling of Commodore cofounder Jack Tramiel as 'Trammel').
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