Bill Mensch

William David Mensch Jr. (born February 9, 1945) is an American electrical engineer born in Quakertown, Pennsylvania. He was a major contributor to the design of the Motorola 6800 8-bit microprocessor and was part of the team led by Chuck Peddle that created the MOS Technology 6502. He also designed the 16-bit successor to the 6502, the 65816.

Mensch is the founder, chairman, and chief executive officer (CEO) of the Western Design Center (WDC) located in Mesa, Arizona. Before founding WDC in 1978, Mensch held design engineering and management positions at Philco-Ford, Motorola, MOS Technology, and Integrated Circuit Engineering. At WDC, Mensch worked mainly on extending and expanding the 6502 architecture. His designs are used widely in embedded systems and implantable, electronic, life-support devices.

Education, teaching and honors Mensch graduated with an associate degree (A.S.) from Temple University in 1966 where he was a member of Sigma Pi fraternity. He received his Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in electrical engineering from the University of Arizona in Tucson in 1971. He has taught classes at Arizona State University, including courses on system on chip (SoC) integrated circuit (IC) design. Mensch is a Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). In 2004, he was inducted in the Computer Hall of Fame (hosted by the San Diego Computer Museum, part of the San Diego State University Library), and in 2005 was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the University of Arizona's College of Engineering. «He built seven different chips without ever having an error, almost all done by hand. When I tell people that, they don't believe me, but it's true. This guy is a unique person. He is the best layout guy in the world.» Mensch claimed that Commodore never intended to use his design, and were instead seeking leverage to get a better deal for competing chips from Japanese producer Toshiba.

The first major effort of Mensch and his team was developing the WDC 65C02, an enhanced version of the NMOS 6502 microprocessor. The 65C02, in addition to being implemented in CMOS circuit technology that reduced power use and improved noise immunity, added some new instructions, and corrected several defects in the NMOS 6502. The 65C02 was subsequently adopted for use in the Apple IIc computer and, later, in an enhanced version of the Apple IIe.

Chuck Peddle and Bill Mensch are regarded as personal computer pioneers, because both the 6502 technology and business model were instrumental in helping launch the personal computer revolution.

Personal life Mensch has five children and resides with his wife, Dianne, in Superstition Mountain, Arizona.