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From: schulka@pb.com (Kenneth A. Schulz)
Subject: Re: 6502 and Scrapping
Message-ID: <1995Mar21.154218.10232@pb.com>
Organization: Pitney Bowes
References: <timothy.20.2F641417@chem.eng.usyd.edu.au> <D5ECy2.JMn@cunews.carleton.ca>
Date: Tue, 21 Mar 1995 15:42:18 GMT
Lines: 51

mgetz@superior.carleton.ca (Mike Getz) writes:

>Timothy Newbury (timothy@chem.eng.usyd.edu.au) wrote:
>: I was wondering if anyone could steer me in the direction of an appropriate 
>: FTP site where 6502 assemblers, development tools, data etc may be found.

>: While I'm here, is the 6502 still used? (These came from fairly primitive 
>: archaic machines/devices but I understand the old Commodoore 64 was based on a 
>: 6502)

>Hi tim,

>You can find assemblers on the SimTel mirrors.

>oak.oakland.edu /SimTel/msdos/crossasm

>The Vic-20 was a 6502 also the APPLE II series the commodore 64 was
>a later member of the 6502 family( for the life of me i can't remember the
>chip number :( )

It was 6510.  This version has a byte-wide I/O port on-chip.  The port and
its Data Direction Register are mapped in at addresses 0 and 1; I'm not sure
in which order.  Commodore used this port to control the '64's memory map;
banking BASIC, the OS kernal, and I/O space in and out of the upper blocks.

Rockwell still makes controller versions of the 65XX;  I believe that the 
ubiquitous Rockwell modem chipsets are based on this family.  Mitsubishi 
has an 8-bit controller family which is instruction-set compatible; I think
the 370 series.  Western Design Center makes a few, including a 16-bit core
with a superset of instructions.  It's still a nifty architecture--lots of
addressing modes.  As Brian Dougherty of GeoWorks pointed out, zero page 
can be treated like a large register bank, taking advantage of the efficient
zero-page addressing mode.

This is off the top of my head--a good starting reference is the annual 
microcontroller issue of Electronics Design News; usually published in 
November, I think.

I guess I sound like an enthusiast, like somebody who's probably still using
his C-64.  I am.

Ken
Kenneth A. Schulz			Phone: (203)924-3296
Technical Advisor			Fax:   (203)924-3409
Pitney Bowes Technology Center		e-mail:schulka@pb.com


-- 
Kenneth A. Schulz			Phone: (203)924-3296
Technical Advisor			Fax:   (203)924-3409
Pitney Bowes Technology Center		e-mail:schulka@pb.com
