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Are 6502 chips still used? What's the application?
by sneed_chucker 3y ago
Are 6502 chips still used? What's the application?
- krylon 3y agoTamagochis are running on 6502 compatible chips. Which makes me think it is used in other toys, too.
- tabtab 3y agoWhat are the top embedded usage chips and what is their typical niche?
- krylon 3y agoI wouldn't know. I just watched a talk a couple of years back about reverse engineering tamagochis, and they turned out to run on some 6502 compatible chip made by a company that - IIRC - sells to toy makers mostly.
- babypuncher 3y agoSkynet is due to start producing their T-800 line of Terminators in 2026, which will use a 6502-derived CPU.
- _whiteCaps_ 3y agoI don't know anything about physical 6502's but they've been embedded in FPGAs where you need a small MCU in a larger design. Same with Intel 8051's.
- duskwuff 3y ago> Are 6502 chips still used? Largely, no. I'm sure there's a few out there, but it's unusual. Embedded 8051 cores, on the other hand... we're probably never going to fully escape those.
- RetroTechie 3y ago8051 was once big in industrial applications like PLCs. Somehow I doubt much has changed. In such applications, reliability + maturity of hw/sw ecosystem is much more important than raw speed or design innovations a competing architecture might bring to the table. So 8051 based parts may see the occasional process shrink, addition of new peripherals, or new IC packages, I/O pin counts, operating voltage etc. But I'd doubt any designer worth their salt would dare touch that core architecture unless their life depended on doing so. :-)
- duskwuff 3y ago8051 is quite popular in new designs as a low-cost embedded controller. You don't see it as often as a discrete component [1]; it's more frequently embedded in more complex devices, like as controllers for USB peripherals or even for startup sequencing in larger parts. [1]: Although that is a thing too; there's a number of manufacturers like Silicon Labs with extensive lines of modern 8051-based mcirocontrollers.
- dean2432 3y agoI was surprised to learn a few months ago that 6502's are still in production, so there must be some use for it. Perhaps replacement parts for industrial equipment from the 70s-90s?