MESA, Arizona, May 26, 2003 - The Western Design Center, Inc. (WDC) announces its 25th anniversary. WDC, the original source and Intellectual Property (IP) owner of the patented W65C02TM 8-bit and W65C816TM 16-bit microprocessors, opened its doors May 26, 1978. WDC was a pioneer in the microprocessor IP market when it began licensing the W65C02 8-bit microprocessor in 1981. In addition, WDC was a pioneer as a fables semiconductor company when GTE and AMI provided wafers to WDC in support of WDC supplying the W65C816, W65C02 and W65C22 IC’s to Apple Computer for the Apple IIc, IIe, IIgs and MacIntosh systems in 1984. William D. Mensch, Jr., Founder, Chairman & CEO of WDC, established WDC to implement his philosophy of design simplicity for high technology and microprocessor design reuse for a variety of applications.
In the past 25 years, it is estimated that over 4 billion 65C02 based microcontrollers have revolutionized our lifestyles as they became the heart of products as diverse as Apple II PC’s, Nintendo game systems, kitchen appliances, cellular telephones, automobiles, modems, audio equipment, video equipment, implanted medical devices, research instruments, automated test equipment, manufacturing robots, fax systems, and set-top boxes.
Mr. Mensch’s distinguished career included employment at Philco-Ford, Motorola, MOS Technology and Integrated Circuit Engineering (ICE), before he founded WDC. He is one of the inventors of the Motorola 6800 microprocessor and the MOS Technology 6502 microprocessor used in Apple, Commodore, Atari, Acorn, and other computers. He is the sole inventor of the CMOS W65C02TM, used in the Apple IIc and IIe computers and the W65C816TM, 16-bit microprocessor used in the Apple IIgs and Super Nintendo system.
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