Chuck Peddle, 1937 - 2019

Chuck Peddle, the main designer of the 6502, has passed away on Dec. 15th, 2019.

Peddle was one of the engineers that developed the 6800 at Motorola. He later went to MOS in order to implement his vision of an 8bit CPU for way less than $300, which was Motorola’s price for the 6800.

This idea of a cheap but powerful CPU materialized as the 6501, and finally the 6502. That very chip, which started the microcomputer revolution, and on which both Marko and myself began to write our first code ever at an early age. BASIC at first, followed by assembly language later.

Learning to code assembly on this small and elegant CPU provided the both of us with profound knowledge and experience about the inner workings of a computer. Knowledge which is still valuable in our respective careers in IT, and also of course when working on our pet project, the Steckschwein. Things would have gone quite different without Chuck Peddle’s elegant little CPU.

Thanks, Chuck!