Hardware engineer, entrepreneur
February 9, 1945
INDUCTED IN THE CLASS OF 2002
Notable accomplishments:
- Worked on the developments of the Mostek MK5065 CPU (1974)
- Helped design the Motorola 6800 CPU (1974)
- Helped design the MOS 6502 CPU (1975)
- Founded the Western Design Center (1978)
- Led development of 65C02 and 65C816 CPUs
Quotes:
“He built seven different chips without ever having an error, almost all done by hand. When I tell people that, they don’t believe me, but it’s true. This guy is a unique person. He is the best layout guy in the world.” (Chuck Peddle discussing Mensch, “The MOS 6502 and the Best Layout Guy in the World,” Research!rsc, Jan. 3, 2011
“Chuck Peddle approached me. He arrived at Motorola two years after I started. … He worked with me on the peripheral interface chip (PIA) and got to see me in action. He decided I was a young, egotistical engineer who was just the right kind to go with his ego. So Chuck and I formed a partnership of sorts. He was the system engineer, and I was the semiconductor engineer. We tried to start our own company and when that didn’t happen, we joined an existing company, called MOS Technology, in Pennsylvania in 1974. That’s where we created the 6501 and 6502, and I designed the input/output chips that went with it. The intention was to [develop a US $20 microprocessor to] compete with the Intel 4040 microcontroller chipset, which sold for about $29 at the time. We weren’t trying to compete with the 6800 or the 8080.” (IEEE Spectrum, Sept. 16, 2021)
Suggested reading:
“Commodore: The Final Years” by Brian Bagnall (2019)
Learn more:
Bill Mensch biography at The Mensch Foundation