The Western Design Center, Inc. (WDC) Founded in 1978 by William D. Mensch, Jr., WDC has licensed its 65xx brand microprocessor Intellectual Property (IP/Cores) to the electronics industry since 1981. WDC is considered a pioneer in the design and licensing of microprocessor technology Intellectual Property (IP) cores and inspired Acorn engineers to create the wildly popular ARMxx series of microprocessors. GTE, Rockwell, MOS Technology, Synertek, and NCR were some of WDC’s first licensees. In addition, WDC began selling 65xx brand microprocessor chips to Apple Computer in 1984 making it the first supplier of microprocessors as a fabless semiconductor company.
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Legendary Microprocessor Technology
Personal Computers
MOS Technology: KIM–1 Personal Single Board Computer
Apple – Apple II, Apple IIc, Apple IIe, and Apple IIgs
Atari: 65XE, 130XE, 400, 800
BBC/Acorn – System 1, Atom, BBC Micro – Note the efforts and evolution of the BBC
Commodore PET, VIC20, 64, etc. commodore computers
Video Games
Atari: 2600, 5200, 7800, Lynx, XEGS
Nintendo: Famicom, NES, SNES
Hand-Held Electronic Publishing
Franklin’s Digital Book System
Communications
Rockwell modems
General Instrument analog set-top boxes
Micronas closed caption digital TV chipsets
Automotive
Micronas dashboard controllers
Medical
Embedded Microprocessor Defibrillators
Billions and Billions sold
Through the last 40+ years as one of the most popular microprocessor architectures of all time. WDC and its licensees have shipped over eight billion CMOS processors; more than 1 per person on planet earth! This number is growing by hundreds of millions of units each year.
The following is a partial list of high-volume applications that have been successful in using 6502 microprocessor technology:
· Personal computers
· Video game systems
· Modems
· Floppy disk drives
· Set-top cable boxes
· Telephones
· Fax machines
· Pagers
· Digital television chipsets
· Copiers
· Scanners
· Wireless cameras
· Security Systems
· Telecom Devices
· Electronic Books
· Personal Digital Assistants
· Toys
· Automobile dashboard
· Appliance controllers
· Industrial controllers
· Embedded heart defibrillators
· Pacemakers
· Point of Sale Terminals