UMaine Chuck Peddle Visit

In April 2019 Computer pioneer and UMaine alumnus Chuck Peddle (who led the team that developed the 6502 processor, among other things) visited the University.

As part of the visit I set up some vintage 6502 computer equipment so the students would have some context on why this was a big deal.

Here I am with Chuck Peddle. He's holding a Pet-mini, which is a scale model of the Commodore Pet, a machine he designed back in the late 1970s.


The Pet Mini is 3D-printed and has a Raspberry Pi inside that is emulating the original Pet. We got this one special made just for this event by the designer of the Mini, Lorenzo Herrera.


I also set up a display with info on the 6502:


And now some machines with 6502 chips in them.

First an Atari 2600, hooked up to an actual CRT TV that I managed to lug in from home by myself. To the right is an Atari Jaguar handheld system.


Next a Super Nintendo and a regular Nintendo, both with 6502-derived chips (the SNES has a 16-bit 65c816 which is a later development of the 6502 line).


My Apple II+:


The Pet Mini, and then a Commodore 64 with a 1541 disk drive. The 1541 disk drive, in addition to being bigger and heavier than the machine it connects to, also has its *own* 6502 chip inside.


Me manning the display. I had a lot of help setting up and running things from Tristan, an undergrad student. A few of the machines on display were his.


Students came and played the games. Some faculty members did too, and were impressing the students with their latent Atari 2600 skills.



Video

I show up midway through this video. When they came to film, I only thought they wanted footage of my Apple II, my interview was a total surprise:

Chuck Peddle '59 - Alumni Career Award from UMaine Alumni on Vimeo.


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