I'm inclined to prefer some form of judging when it comes to prize-giving. In this case it has less to do with whether a prize is given or not, and more to do with who gets first pick, so I think the judges are free to exercise their common sense without people crying foul. BigEd has put forward one reasonable set of criteria; other judges might have different, complementary criteria or just "wing it".

In any case, I've already started sketching something out…

Okay, so here it is:


I want to keep this as simple as possible and not put too many restrictions in the way. Ed and I will not be judges. Rather we will adjudicate.

Here are the rules:

1) The concept for the contest is as described before - Think: You are a late 1970's / early1980's engineer and you have to build the latest thingamajig, but it has to be built down to a price to give the most bang for the buck. KISS (Keep It Simple and Smart)

2) The 6507 must be the main processor. You cannot add any other generally programmable processing devices.

3) You can add logic or a GAL as required to make your glue logic.

4) You must use the 6532.

5) Since not all people are equipped to deal with UV-erasable EPROMS, you may substitute another kind of ROM for the 2716.

6) You can add RAM or ROM as required within the 8KB limit of the 6507.

7) You can add a maximum of two (2) simple I/O devices to the CPU bus over and above the 6532 such as a UART, ADC, DAC, LCD display, HEX keypad controller, HEX display driver, data latch, input buffer, shift register, etc. If in doubt, ask.

You can hang anything you want off the 6532 as long it is under the full control of the 6507.

9) You must start a project thread on 6502.org beginning with an outline of what you intend to do and relate your progress. You are encouraged to solicit input from forum members.

10) There will be 2 milestones for completion at 6 months and 12 months. This schedule in conjunction with rule 11 will determine prize distribution. Those finished within 6 months will have first choice. Those taking between 6 and 12 months will get the next choice. Those taking longer than 12 months will be deemed to have not completed, however as long as a log thread was started and contributed to regularly, will still receive a prize from what remains.

11) Ed’s BUGS self assessment (with 1 addition) will be used to determine who chooses first at each completion milestone. Ties will be resolved by who finished first. Read the self-assessment carefully so you know what is encouraged. You score yourself out of 10 on each point.

The BUGS self assessment:
- was it fun
- did you learn something
- did it work
- did you finish (maximum score 9 out of 10)
- did you keep a progress thread on this forum
- did you publish your sources (with an open source license for full marks)
- did you accept any input from collaborators or commenters (the more the merrier)
- extra points for being Educational, Surprising, Amusing or Interesting
- have you published a blog, featured on Hackaday, been discussed on other forums
- have you ideas for extensions or follow-on projects
- extra points for keeping the hardware as simple as possible

That’s just about it.

As for prizes, I will try to divide what I have more or less evenly into 6 lots. There will be a lot of stuff in each prize lot. I will pay the shipping on the prizes. Each lot will contain items from, but not limited to, the following list:

a) PICAXE MCUs
b) Various sensor and actuator modules
c) NMOS 6502s
d) Left over PCBs from some of my working projects (in the case of SBCs, with some hard to find components tested to work with them like UARTs and programmed GALs).
e) Quantities of LEDs
f) Small DC motors
g) Nokia style LCD displays
h) 4 digit 8-segment LED displays
i) Atmel MCUs
j) PICAXE educational kits
k) MCU development boards and proto-boards
l) Various chips (divers, timers, opto-isolators, Ethernet controllers, etc..)
m) Power MOSFETS
n) mini-solderless breadboards and jumper kits (possibly bigger ones too)
n) Whatever other useful stuff I can locate from my defunct store inventory.

As long as no one objects, we are now open for entries. Limit is 6 entries - first come first served. All you have to do to enter is declare it in this thread and PM me to tell me your location so I can determine shipping costs of the components and let you know.

_________________
Bill

I would like to participate!

Okay, count me in - with shipping to Finland.

I’d like to enter, but I’d also like to buy my own parts (and I could provide some extras for other entrants too if anyone is interested?). Right from the start I’d like to bend the rules a little and use a 6504 rather than the provided 6507, the IRQ pin is more useful to me than the RDY pin, that’s the only difference, so I don’t think it changes much. Would that be ok?

(Great to see this final format and some entrants already!)

I'm okay with bending the rules as long as Ed and the contestants before you are chill with it. What do you say guys?

_________________
Bill

I'm OK with the substitution. But I'll be intrigued to see what people manage without IRQ, those who go that way. And whether there are interesting new ways of using RDY.

_________________
http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

Exactly. Been there, and done that, BTW - from both sides. Reality is.

_________________
Bill

I haven't thought of a world-changing idea to enter yet, but I have a made a lifelong hobby out of interpreting rules ...



Does Rule 8 over ride the other rules? As Garth pointed out, you can hang quite a few peripherals off of the IO ports, including things mentioned in rule 7. Does this override apply to other rules as well?

Depending how rule 8 is interpreted, someone could hang a megabyte I2C ROM (does 8 override 6?) for massive ROM storage.

I don't think that would be in the spirit of the competition but it could be within the letter if rule 8 is allowing more than 2 devices from rule 7 to be added. It's easy to argue rule 8 allows more than the other rules allow as well, as long as the RIOT is used to interface.

Lawyering done, I'll go back to thinking of something with 8k total memory!

No override. As long as you hang it on the 6532 and it has no control of its own, you can go for it. The 6507 still needs to be the boss. I think Garth (but I could be wrong) was stating that you can do a lot with 16 bits of I/O without having to resort to excess.

Sure, if it suits your needs.

Agreed, so you might have to dock yourself points on that account.

It is in the letter of the rules. Rule 7 concerns itself with direct attachment to the CPU bus. You might find that trying to add all sorts of memory, or other complex yet passive things beyond what is practical to the 6532 rapidly reaches a point of diminishing returns.

We'd welcome your participation.

_________________
Bill

I think I have a way of using RDY plus some glue logic to implement something rather like WDC's WAI instruction. I might even get a direct bitmask of pending events out of it, saving me from polling devices unnecessarily. In some ways having /IRQ would still be useful, but for what I have in mind, polling is okay.

_________________
http://WilsonMinesCo.com/ lots of 6502 resources
The "second front page" is http://wilsonminesco.com/links.html .
What's an additional VIA among friends, anyhow?

Reset vector for all 650x is the same - FFFx, but high address lines are not connected, so one may read it from the outside as 1FFx. Using reset as interrupt is quite a nice idea, provided that the whole functionality (after init) may be implemented as an ISR - a good option for a clock, timer/whatever timer-only based application.