Chuck Peddle, one of the most important engineers of the early home computer era, died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 82.
ο Chuck Peddle was known as the lead designer of MOS's low-cost 6502 processor Technology (costing just $25 in 1975), used in early home computers such as the Apple II and Commodore PET. Variants of this core influenced consoles such as the Atari 2600 and the NES. If you miss the days of 8-bit computing, then you owe Peddle a debt of gratitude.
Peddle wanted to design Motorola an affordable chip. But when Motorola did not respond to his proposal, Peddle and six of its members teamThey knocked on the door of MOS Technology. Commodore then bought MOS, making Peddle chief engineer and changing the computing landscape.
Peddle left the MOS team in 1980 and worked on lower-level projects such as Sirius Systems Technology's Victor PC and removable hard drives that were precursors to external drives and USB sticks. But he had left his legacy. It helped spread computing by making home computers affordable.
And to some extent, it introduced the concept of ubiquitous computing, where the technology spread out everywhere instead of sitting on monolithic servers. In this sense, the smartphones and connected homes, have their roots in Peddle's ideas, formulated 45 years ago.
