Western Design Center

{{Short description|American company}}

{{Confused|Western Digital}}

{{More citations|date=June 2023}}

{{Use American English|date=July 2022}}

{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2022}}

{{Infobox company

| name = The Western Design Center, Inc.

| logo = Western Design Center logo one-color.svg

| type = Private

| industry = Electronics

| fate =

| predecessor =

| successor =

| founded = {{Start date and age|1978}} in Mesa, Arizona, United States

| founder = Bill Mensch

| defunct =

| hq_location_city = Mesa, Arizona

| hq_location_country = United States

| area_served = Worldwide

| key_people = Bill Mensch

| products = Microprocessors, microcontrollers, support devices

| owner = Bill Mensch

| num_employees =

| num_employees_year =

| parent =

| website = {{URL|https://wdc65xx.com/}}

{{URL|https://www.westerndesigncenter.com/}}

}}

The Western Design Center (WDC), located in Mesa, Arizona, is a company that develops intellectual property for, and licenses manufacture of, MOS Technology 65xx based microprocessors and microcontrollers. WDC was founded in 1978 by a former MOS Technology employee and co-holder of the MOS Technology 6502 patent, Bill Mensch.{{cite web |last=Cass |first=Stephen |date=September 16, 2021 |title=Q&A With Co-Creator of the 6502 Processor: Bill Mensch on the microprocessor that powered the Atari 2600 and Commodore 64 |url=https://spectrum.ieee.org/q-a-with-co-creator-of-the-6502-processor |work=IEEE Spectrum}} Prior to leaving MOS Technology in 1977 Bill was the microprocessor design manager at MOS Technology.

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{{cite web | url=https://wdc65xx.com/integrated-circuit | title=Integrated Circuit (IC) | the Western Design Center, Inc }} revolving around their processor designs. WDC also produces C compilers, assembler/linker packages, simulators, development–evaluation printed circuit boards,{{cite web | url=https://wdc65xx.com/Single-Board-Computers | title=Single Board Computers (SBC) | the Western Design Center, Inc }} and in-circuit emulators for their processors.

Hardware products

The first product developed by WDC was the WDC 65C02, a CMOS version of the NMOS based MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor. The 65C02 reduced the power consumption, improved noise immunity and added some new instructions. The 65C02 was subsequently adopted for use in the Apple IIc computer and, later, in an enhanced version of the Apple IIe.{{Cite web |title=research!rsc: The MOS 6502 and the Best Layout Guy in the World |url=https://research.swtch.com/6502 |access-date=2024-08-01 |website=research.swtch.com}}

Mensch's next design, which was to become an important product at WDC, was a 65C02-compatible 16-bit microprocessor, the 65C816, later designated W65C816S. The 65C816's design came about following consultation with Apple and was adopted by them for use in the Apple IIGS computer. The 65C816 was later chosen as the core of the Ricoh 5A22 processor that powered the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.

=Devices=

class="wikitable sortable"

! width="10%" | Name !! width="20%" | Type !! Comments

W65C02S8-bit microprocessorEnhanced static core CMOS version of the MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor
W65C816S16-bit microprocessorExtended version of the W65C02S, featuring larger instruction set, selectable register sizes and 24-bit memory addressing
W65C134S8-bit microcontrollerMicrocontroller with W65C02S core and mask-programmable ROM
W65C265S16-bit microcontrollerMicrocontroller with W65C816S core and mask-programmable ROM
W65C21NI/O deviceDrop-in replacement for MOS Technology 6520 & Motorola 6820/6821 peripheral interface adapters (PIA)
W65C21SI/O deviceLower power, higher performance version of the W65C21N PIA
W65C22NI/O deviceDrop-in replacement for the MOS Technology 6522 versatile interface adapter (VIA)
W65C22SI/O deviceModified version of the MOS Technology 6522 VIA, with totem-pole IRQ output
W65C51NI/O deviceDrop-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

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