WHERE OLD COMPUTERS ARE WELCOME
The computer pioneer developed the 6502
and one of the first personal computers.
Chuck Peddle got the idea of developing a personal computer. It should be a
closed system that can immediately be used after plugging it to the power
outlet. The result was the PET. Almost at the same time the Apple II was
introduced. PET's features were built-in monitor, integrated cassette
device and the well-known BASIC interpreter from Microsoft. The PET has
survived many modifications and is still popular, thanks to the typewriter
keyboard introduced in later models.
He is one generation older than the miracle children among computer
constructors, Stephen Wozniak and Steve Jobs. In 1973, Chuck Peddle went to
Motorola to among others co-operate in developing the 6800 microprocessor.
The 6800, one of the first microprocessors on the market, was
correspondingly expensive with its price of 200 dollars. Chuck Peddle
thought that this price would inhibit the processor from conquering the
market. He left Motorola and had a fresh start at MOS Technology.
What he developed in this relatively small company, should soon become the
most successful microprocessor of the first microcomputer decade -- the
6502 MPU. Nobody could anticipate that it was the basis of a whole industry
that started a social revolution.
One person who detected the worldwide effects of microprocessors and
especially the 6502 from MOS Technology was Jack Tramial, the ex-president
of Commodore. Until then Commodore's turnovers had been very modest.
It is not hard to understand that Tramiel, the main client of
4-function-chips for pocket calculators by MOS Technology, bought the
company the other day, although Commodore was in financial troubles itself.
But for Tramiel, the most important part of the deal was among the 6502 the
developing engineer Chuck Peddle.
Chuck Peddle had certainly also made an impression with his concept of a
personal computer. Similar ideas were brought out independent of Peddle by
the Apple founders Wozniak and Jobs. Chuck Peddle was so sure of his idea
that he allied with Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft and father of the
popular BASIC interpreter, to buy up Apple. This took place almost at the
same time when Commodore bought MOS Technology. Wozniak and Jobs wanted
back then 150,000 dollars for Apple, but Peddle and Gates could only raise
two thirds of the required funds.
Thus Chuck Peddle stayed at Commodore and in 1977 took over the development
of the PET (Personal Electronic Transactor). At the same time Wozniak and
Jobs were building the Apple II. The PET differed from it by its built-in
monitor, integrated cassette device as well as by a keyboard, whose quality
could be better compared with a pocket calculator than with a typewriter.
In spite of this disadvantage, the first lot of 1000 PETs were rapidly sold
at about 1600 dollars a piece. The first generation of microcomputers was
born that was specially developed for private home use.
Three years later Chuck Peddle developed a new talent -- the one of a
company president. Together with Chris Fish, a former financer of
Commodore, he founded Sirius Systems Technology as daughter enterprise of
the Walter Kidde Corporation.
The development in the area of personal computers was concentrated on the
16-bit chips at that time, like the Intel 8088. Also IBM was working on a
PC, but Sirius brought the Sirius I some weeks earlier to the market. The
Sirius I was the first inexpensive microcomputer of the 16-bit generation
that was produced in big quantities and was widely noticed.
The Sirius I could be used very conveniently, thanks to its detached
keyboard and flicker-free high resolution graphics monitor. The Sirius I
set an until then unknown standard for microcomputer office systems.
