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The Western Design Center, Inc.
Company typePrivate
IndustryElectronics
Founded1978; 46 years ago (1978) in Mesa, Arizona, United States
FounderBill Mensch
Headquarters
Mesa, Arizona
,
United States
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Bill Mensch
ProductsMicroprocessors, microcontrollers, support devices
OwnerBill Mensch
Websitewdc65xx.com www.westerndesigncenter.com

The Western Design Center (WDC), located in Mesa, Arizona, is a company which develops intellectual property for, and licenses manufacture of, MOS Technology 65xx based microprocessors, microcontrollers (µCs), and related support devices. WDC was founded in 1978 by a former MOS Technology employee and coholder of the MOS Technology 6502 patent, Bill Mensch.[1]

Beyond discrete devices, WDC offers device designs in the form of semiconductor intellectual property cores (IP cores) to use inside other chips such as application-specific integrated circuit (ASICs), and provides ASIC and embedded systems consulting services[2] revolving around their processor designs. WDC also produces C compilers, assembler/linker packages, simulators, development–evaluation printed circuit boards,[3] and in-circuit emulators for their processors.

Hardware products

Devices

Name Type Comments
W65C02S 8-bit microprocessor Enhanced static core CMOS version of the MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor
W65C816S 16-bit microprocessor Extended version of the W65C02S, featuring larger instruction set, selectable register sizes and 24-bit memory addressing
W65C134S 8-bit microcontroller Microcontroller with W65C02S core and mask-programmable ROM
W65C265S 16-bit microcontroller Microcontroller with W65C816S core and mask-programmable ROM
W65C21N I/O device Drop-in replacement for MOS Technology 6520 & Motorola 6820/6821 peripheral interface adapters (PIA)
W65C21S I/O device Lower power, higher performance version of the W65C21N PIA
W65C22N I/O device Drop-in replacement for the MOS Technology 6522 versatile interface adapter (VIA)
W65C22S I/O device Modified version of the MOS Technology 6522 VIA, with totem-pole IRQ output
W65C51N I/O device Drop-in replacement for the MOS Technology 6551 asynchronous communications interface adapter (ACIA)

Personal computer

The Mensch Computer is a W65C265 and W65C22-based hobbyist experimental personal computer named after company founder Bill Mensch.

References

  1. ^ Cass, Stephen (September 16, 2021). "Q&A With Co-Creator of the 6502 Processor: Bill Mensch on the microprocessor that powered the Atari 2600 and Commodore 64". IEEE Spectrum.
  2. ^ "Integrated Circuit (IC) | the Western Design Center, Inc".
  3. ^ "Single Board Computers (SBC) | the Western Design Center, Inc".

External links

65xx-based CPUs
Categories