Bill Mensch on the creation of the 6530

Letter from Bill Mensch on the creation of the 6530

Bill Mensch wrote:
I would be happy to contribute some commentary concerning the creation of the 6530 at MOS.

What are you interested in other than it was the second chip for the combination of the 6502 for use in control systems.
The KIM-1 was a reference design/use case for bothe the 6502 and the 6530, actually two of them.
One 6530 was for the “Teletype Input Monitor (TIM)” and the other one was for the “Keypad Input Monitor (KIM)”.

It was first demonstrated along with the 6501/6502 at the WESCON ’75.
The 6502 and 6530 were ment to compete with the $29 Intel 4040 two chip controller combo.

The actual design was important for the introduction of the 6502.
I and a team of three mask designers Harry Bawcom, Mike Jaynes and Sid Holdt created the 6530.
The timer design was patented and used on the 6530, 6531 and 6532 chips.

Chuck Peddle and Wil Mathys contributed the system level applications concepts and requested the features.
We were a small team. I was the semiconductor design and architect engineer.
The 6530 followed many of the design concepts of the 6820/6520/6821/6520 concepts for IO and interrupt features.

The 6522 followed the 6520/6530/6532 designs at MOS.

Ray Hirt was the project lead on the 6532.
The 6532 RIOT design was basically to remove the ROM and add another 64 bytes of RAM for a total of 128 bytes.
I was the microprocessor design manager at this time replacing Rod Orgill who had left MOS to work at NCR in Colorado Springs, CO.
Rod didn’t work on any of the IO chips, just the 6501/6502.

Ray, Rod, sometimes Wil and I shared many a pitcher of beer at many lunches after the 6502 and 6530/32 were completed before Rod left for Colorado.
These are fond memories of my time at MOS.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Best,
-Bill