3 ms·

Is that a serious question? Because you can slap a 6502 on a breadboard, make your own busses with wires, and understand every single aspect of it, hardware and

by anyfoo 2y ago

Is that a serious question? Because you can slap a 6502 on a breadboard, make your own busses with wires, and understand every single aspect of it, hardware and software. Ben Eater also had a video series about designing and making his own CPU from logic chips. He switched to 6502 likely because progressing up the stack, it started to become too big.

hasbot 2y ago
Of course it's a serious question. When I do a micro controller based project, processor selection is an important consideration. One can slap an ESP32 or a CH552 or dozens of others on a breadboard too and do everything you mentioned. But, I honestly haven't ever considered any of the ancient microprocessors.
- wvenable 2y ago
  I'm building a 6502 system to build a 6502 a system -- it's a hobby. The challenge is accomplishing things using limited technology. It's art. I'm building the computer (with paging and "kernel mode"), an operating system, programming languages, GUI, etc. Keeping it 8bit also helps keeps the scale small and doable. When I do a "microcontroller project" then I slap an ESP32, Arduino, or Pi Pico on the breadboard -- not a 6502.
- anyfoo 2y ago
  These projects are not done to solve “real problems”, they are done as educational engineering challenges and playgrounds. Of course a modern microcontroller does everything and much much more, but it is also extremely opaque, and even the ones considered “simple” nowadays might not be fully understandable in every single aspect by just a single person. Now, nothing prevents you from still using a 6502 based project for “real problems” as well, and it’s fun to use your pet project for something practical every once in a while, but that’s usually not the focus. The focus is learning, building, intentionally reinventing the wheel so to speak. In my previous comment to you, I mentioned how Ben Eater made a self-designed CPU in his excellent video series, before switching to the 6502 to explore higher abstraction layers. In that case it may be more obvious that the focus was on designing the CPU itself, not on any a priori application use case for it.

by anyfoo 2y ago

hasbot 2y ago

Of course it's a serious question. When I do a micro controller based project, processor selection is an important consideration. One can slap an ESP32 or a CH552 or dozens of others on a breadboard too and do everything you mentioned. But, I honestly haven't ever considered any of the ancient microprocessors.

wvenable 2y ago
I'm building a 6502 system to build a 6502 a system -- it's a hobby. The challenge is accomplishing things using limited technology. It's art. I'm building the computer (with paging and "kernel mode"), an operating system, programming languages, GUI, etc. Keeping it 8bit also helps keeps the scale small and doable. When I do a "microcontroller project" then I slap an ESP32, Arduino, or Pi Pico on the breadboard -- not a 6502.
anyfoo 2y ago
These projects are not done to solve “real problems”, they are done as educational engineering challenges and playgrounds. Of course a modern microcontroller does everything and much much more, but it is also extremely opaque, and even the ones considered “simple” nowadays might not be fully understandable in every single aspect by just a single person. Now, nothing prevents you from still using a 6502 based project for “real problems” as well, and it’s fun to use your pet project for something practical every once in a while, but that’s usually not the focus. The focus is learning, building, intentionally reinventing the wheel so to speak. In my previous comment to you, I mentioned how Ben Eater made a self-designed CPU in his excellent video series, before switching to the 6502 to explore higher abstraction layers. In that case it may be more obvious that the focus was on designing the CPU itself, not on any a priori application use case for it.