The Mensch Computer is a

personal computer A personal computer (PC) is a multi-purpose microcomputer whose size, capabilities, and price make it feasible for individual use. Personal computers are intended to be operated directly by an end user, rather than by a computer expert or tech ...

system produced by the

Western Design Center The Western Design Center (WDC), located in Mesa, Arizona, is a company which develops intellectual property for, and licenses manufacture of, MOS Technology 65xx based microprocessors, microcontrollers (µCs), and related support devices. W ...

(WDC). It is based on the

WDC 65C265 The Western Design Center (WDC) W65C265S is a 16-bit CMOS microcontroller based on a W65C816S processor core, which is a superset of the MOS Technology 6502 processor. The W65C265S consists of a fully static W65C816S CPU core, 8 KB of RO ...

microcontroller A microcontroller (MCU for ''microcontroller unit'', often also MC, UC, or μC) is a small computer on a single VLSI integrated circuit (IC) chip. A microcontroller contains one or more CPUs ( processor cores) along with memory and programma ...

, which implements the

instruction set In computer science, an instruction set architecture (ISA), also called computer architecture, is an abstract model of a computer. A device that executes instructions described by that ISA, such as a central processing unit (CPU), is called a ...

s of two

microprocessor A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circu ...

s: the

16-bit 16-bit microcomputers are microcomputers that use 16-bit microprocessors. A 16-bit register can store 216 different values. The range of integer values that can be stored in 16 bits depends on the integer representation used. With the two mos ...

W65C816/65816, and the

8-bit In computer architecture, 8-bit integers or other data units are those that are 8 bits wide (1 octet). Also, 8-bit central processing unit (CPU) and arithmetic logic unit (ALU) architectures are those that are based on registers or data buses of ...

6502 The MOS Technology 6502 (typically pronounced "sixty-five-oh-two" or "six-five-oh-two") William Mensch and the moderator both pronounce the 6502 microprocessor as ''"sixty-five-oh-two"''. is an 8-bit microprocessor that was designed by a small te ...

. The computer is named after

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 Pedd ...

, designer of the 6502 and subsequent series of microprocessor. The system is designed for hobbyists and people who enjoy

computer programming Computer programming is the process of performing a particular computation (or more generally, accomplishing a specific computing result), usually by designing and building an executable computer program. Programming involves tasks such as anal ...

, especially at the assembly language level, and includes a basic set of

peripheral A peripheral or peripheral device is an auxiliary device used to put information into and get information out of a computer. The term ''peripheral device'' refers to all hardware components that are attached to a computer and are controlled by th ...

s which can be expanded by the owner. Much software originally written for other computer systems which use the 65816 or 6502 instruction sets (such as the

Nintendo Entertainment System The Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) is an 8-bit third-generation home video game console produced by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan in 1983 as the commonly known as the The NES, a redesigned version, was released in American ...

, Super Nintendo, or

Apple IIGS The Apple IIGS (styled as II), the fifth and most powerful of the Apple II family, is a 16-bit personal computer produced by Apple Computer. While featuring the Macintosh look and feel, and resolution and color similar to the Amiga and Atari S ...

, among others) can be run on the Mensch Computer (either directly as binary

object code In computing, object code or object module is the product of a compiler. In a general sense object code is a sequence of statements or instructions in a computer language, usually a machine code language (i.e., binary) or an intermediate lang ...

or through reassembling the software

source code In computing, source code, or simply code, is any collection of code, with or without comment (computer programming), comments, written using a human-readable programming language, usually as plain text. The source code of a Computer program, p ...

), to the extent that such software does not rely on hardware configurations which differ from the Mensch Computer. The Mensch Computer includes a

read-only memory Read-only memory (ROM) is a type of non-volatile memory used in computers and other electronic devices. Data stored in ROM cannot be electronically modified after the manufacture of the memory device. Read-only memory is useful for storing s ...

(ROM)

machine code monitor A machine code monitor ( machine language monitor) is software that allows a user to enter commands to view and change memory locations on a computer, with options to load and save memory contents from/to secondary storage. Some full-feature ...

(a type of

firmware In computing, firmware is a specific class of computer software that provides the low-level control for a device's specific hardware. Firmware, such as the BIOS of a personal computer, may contain basic functions of a device, and may provide ...

), and many software routines are available to programmers by calling subroutines in the ROM. Typically, the system runs Mensch Works, a

software suite A software suite (also known as an application suite) is a collection of computer programs (application software, or programming software) of related functionality, sharing a similar user interface and the ability to easily exchange data with eac ...

also named after Bill Mensch.

References

External links

* {{Microcompu-stub Microcomputers