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[phi2008]

One of my pet peeves is the amount of publicity Steve Wozniak and Apple get for the early days of the microcomputer explosion, history now makes them notable but if you want to pinpoint someone far more important and interesting try Chuck Peddle. Chuck designed the 6502, reducing processor costs from hundreds of dollars to tens of dollars - leading to affordable home micros. He also designed the Commodore PET, and has done a million other things - and is still active in the electronics industry today.

The Amp Hour have done a 3 hour interview with him (19 March, 2015) covering his years in the industry and what he is doing now - sounds long but time will pass pretty quickly if you are old enough to remember the home computer revolution.

So make a mug of tea, grab a pack of biscuits, and sit down and listen to the entertaining and insightful Chuck Peddle - http://www.theamphour.com/241-an-interview-with-chuck-peddle-charismatic-chipmaking-coryphaeus/ 


 

[roseway]

Many thanks for that link. I absolutely agree with you - Chuck Peddle is a classic example of the way that the people who do the real work often aren't the ones who end up getting the credit.

[GigabitEthernet]

[Dray]

No programs? Programs existed before C did.

[phi2008]

No programs? Programs existed before C did.

Only a B programmer would say that! 

[Dray]

 

[AArdvark]

Thanks for this. Someone who remembers history as it was, not as rewritten by apple acolytes.
I remember the 6502 and looking out for the updated 16bit version 65802 and trying to work out if I could swap the processor in an Atari 800 😁😁.
Never did I could only find the 65802 in stock from a volume supplier. What do you do with 1000 of them ?
Not to mention the cost 😁

[burakkucat]

I can certainly remember the 6502.    However I am unable to remember the 6502 assembler! 

[Dray]

http://skilldrick.github.io/easy6502/ 

[roseway]

My first programming exploits were in 6502 machine code on a Tangerine Micron.

[HPsauce]

Mine was machine code on one of these: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_Electric_DEUCE
Very challenging as you had to take the timing of the mercury delay line memory into account.

[AArdvark]

Recently chucked out my old programming books for 6502 & Z80. Took some effort to do, I hoard things. Managed to half fill a skip 😢😢😄

[AArdvark]

Notice the common thread everyone working at low level. Sometimes its the only way 😄
Did low level on lots of kit. Forgot it all, long time ago.

[broadstairs]

I worked with machine code right to the end, mainly when debugging code in an OS rather than writing my own stuff although I did write some in assembler. It is quite amazing how compact and fast programs can be when written in machine code rather than a higher level language, although C (in its various forms) gets pretty close.

Stuart

[burakkucat]

I found that earlier gained knowledge of assembler was an asset . . . especially when patching a binary file with the usage of adb, when the source code of the binary file was unavailable.