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Invoice Zissimopoulos has developed a platform designed to make it straightforward to mess around with the traditional MOS Expertise 6502 processor — by changing the remainder of a useful microcomputer system with an Arduino board.
Developed by Chuck Peddle and colleagues, the MOS 6502 launched in 1975 as the most cost effective microprocessor in the marketplace — a characteristic that undeniably helped popularize its use in a spread of tasks, from video games consoles together with the Atari 2600 and Nintendo Leisure System to the Apple II, Commodore 64, and BBC Micro. Amazingly, for a microprocessor quickly to achieve its fiftieth anniversary, the half’s nonetheless in manufacturing at present — making it a tempting goal for tinkerers searching for a classic expertise.
Designed to be wired to an actual 6502, the 6502ctl challenge builds up a compact retrocomputer. (📷: Invoice Zissimopoulos)
“The 6502ctl challenge is an Arduino controller for the 6502 CPU,” Zissimopoulos explains of his challenge. “The controller controls all 6502 pins, together with the clock sign and interrupts, and simulates an deal with and knowledge bus with connected reminiscence and an output peripheral. The controller features a clock-cycle debugger with disassembler. An assembler can be included with the challenge.”
Designed for an Arduino Mega 2560 board, and designed to be used with Western Design Heart’s fashionable W65C02S CMOS 40-pin PDIP model of the chip, the 6502ctl takes the place of all the opposite elements you’d often have to construct a working microcomputer from a 6502. Simulated deal with and knowledge buses are offered, alongside a 16kB ROM and 4kB RAM, and there is help for peripheral interrupts.
A helpful debugger is included, accessible by way of the Arduino’s serial port. (📷: Invoice Zissimopoulos)
The challenge additionally gives entry to a debugger utilizing the Arduino IDE’s Serial Monitor, or some other serial terminal, nevertheless it’s not designed for direct improvement: Whereas many 6502-based microcomputers would have a programming language, often BASIC, in ROM, the 6502ctl depends on improvement happening on a linked host pc for compilation to a ROM file.
The 6502ctl challenge is out there on GitHub below the permissive MIT license.
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