Development of the MOS Technology 6502: A Historical Perspective (2022)
5 comments
·September 16, 2025glimshe
The 6502 is as important, if not more, than the iPhone. Simplicity, elegance that powered the early days of the personal computing revolution.
By the way, this is a terrific article.
jason_s
Fifty years ago today, on September 16, 1975, MOS Technology exhibited the 6502 at WESCON, making samples available:
> Here the story takes one of those legendary turns. Steve Wozniak had been designing the Apple I around the Motorola 6800, but he sees the MOS Technology ad, realizes he can get a better price (even better than a Motorola discount he can take advantage of as a Hewlett-Packard employee), goes to WESCON, and buys a couple of chips from Peddle, who’s selling them in a jar from a suite in a nearby hotel because WESCON won’t let them sell product at the convention. The 6502 is soon in the Apple I design. Only two hundred Apple I computers were manufactured in 1976, but by that time, Wozniak is already thinking about the Apple II, introduced in 1977, which will quickly take off like a rocket, starting the use of the 6502 in the personal computer industry with a bang.
keeglin
I much prefer Chuck Peddle's telling of the story of surrounding MOS's acquisition by Commodore and the history of the 6502 at VCF East: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBnmJhEOdC8
jason_s
Happy birthday, 6502!
I wrote my first chess-playing program in 6502 hex because I didn't have an assembler, and I still remember some of its opcode values all of these years later. Such a fun little chip!