3 ms·

Anyone's got an idea why the 6502 is more harder to find than the Z80 ? Can't find them at any of my local electronics stores where i live for some reason unli

Anyone's got an idea why the 6502 is more harder to find than the Z80 ? Can't find them at any of my local electronics stores where i live for some reason unlike the Z80s which i find plenty of.

Jedd 6y ago
I think the 6502 was less 'general purpose' than the Z80 (which I've seen huge banks of in Honeywell FEP's, years ago, f.e.). I imagine they're similarly sought-after now, though. I've never played with the Z80, so I don't know if it offers easier integration with arduino / RPi and other basic systems now. FWIW I see they're available on local ebay for few dollars: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/273461107051 https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/273461107051 (I think the 6502A means it runs at 1.5MHz, but don't quote me on that.)
- duskwuff 6y ago
  Yikes. That's a remarked part -- the style of printing on the top is wrong, and the date code is nonsense. (0448 would indicate it was manufactured in late 2004, but Rockwell Semiconductor was spun off as Conexant in 1999, and they stopped manufacturing this part many years before that.)
  - Jedd 6y ago
    Oh, that's interesting (and way outside my knowledge bubble). You reckon it would actually work as a 6502, or it's remarked from an entirely not-65xx CPU?
    - duskwuff 6y ago
      There's a decent chance it's actually a 6502, but the actual part that's under those markings could be any one of a number of 6502s from many different manufacturers.
    - segfaultbuserr 6y ago
      Both are possible. I guess there's a 70% chance that the chip is not a 6502 at all, nevertheless still a 30% chance that the chip is salvaged from trash and remarked but its silicon die is authentic.
- to11mtm 6y ago
  > I think the 6502 was less 'general purpose' than the Z80 (which I've seen huge banks of in Honeywell FEP's, years ago, f.e.). Z80 has more registers than a 6502, plus that built in dram refresh was nice to have. They're still useful for quite a bit, which may explain why you can still find Z80 parts on digi-key.
  - rvense 6y ago
    You can still get brand-new 65c02s and related peripherals as well.
- renewedrebecca 6y ago
  The 6502 was as general-purpose as anything else. WDC still makes them, although you'd probably want the 65C02, which can also do a Vcc of 5.0 or 3.3 volts. I think z80's are more popular in home-brews because there's a ton of free(-ish) CP/M software out there that can easily be used.

Anyone's got an idea why the 6502 is more harder to find than the Z80 ? Can't find them at any of my local electronics stores where i live for some reason unlike the Z80s which i find plenty of.

Jedd 6y ago

I think the 6502 was less 'general purpose' than the Z80 (which I've seen huge banks of in Honeywell FEP's, years ago, f.e.). I imagine they're similarly sought-after now, though. I've never played with the Z80, so I don't know if it offers easier integration with arduino / RPi and other basic systems now. FWIW I see they're available on local ebay for few dollars: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/273461107051 https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/273461107051 (I think the 6502A means it runs at 1.5MHz, but don't quote me on that.)

duskwuff 6y ago
Yikes. That's a remarked part -- the style of printing on the top is wrong, and the date code is nonsense. (0448 would indicate it was manufactured in late 2004, but Rockwell Semiconductor was spun off as Conexant in 1999, and they stopped manufacturing this part many years before that.)
- Jedd 6y ago
  Oh, that's interesting (and way outside my knowledge bubble). You reckon it would actually work as a 6502, or it's remarked from an entirely not-65xx CPU?
  - duskwuff 6y ago
    There's a decent chance it's actually a 6502, but the actual part that's under those markings could be any one of a number of 6502s from many different manufacturers.
  - segfaultbuserr 6y ago
    Both are possible. I guess there's a 70% chance that the chip is not a 6502 at all, nevertheless still a 30% chance that the chip is salvaged from trash and remarked but its silicon die is authentic.
to11mtm 6y ago
> I think the 6502 was less 'general purpose' than the Z80 (which I've seen huge banks of in Honeywell FEP's, years ago, f.e.). Z80 has more registers than a 6502, plus that built in dram refresh was nice to have. They're still useful for quite a bit, which may explain why you can still find Z80 parts on digi-key.
- rvense 6y ago
  You can still get brand-new 65c02s and related peripherals as well.
renewedrebecca 6y ago
The 6502 was as general-purpose as anything else. WDC still makes them, although you'd probably want the 65C02, which can also do a Vcc of 5.0 or 3.3 volts. I think z80's are more popular in home-brews because there's a ton of free(-ish) CP/M software out there that can easily be used.