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.
Legendary Microprocessor Technology
The following is a list of some of the pioneering products that the 65xx technology is remembered for:
Commodore KIM–1 Single Board Computer
Personal Computers
Apple II, Apple IIc, Apple IIe, and Apple IIgs
BBC Acorn Computer
Commodore PET, VIC20, 64, etc. commodore computers
Video Games
Atari, Nintendo, Super Nintendo
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 30+ years as one of the most popular microprocessor architectures of all time the 65xx brand is estimated to have over six billion embedded 65xx processors shipped and is growing by hundreds of millions of units per year, provided by WDC and its licensees. The following is a partial list of high volume applications that have been successful in using 65xx processors:
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