BigDumbDinosaur wrote:
Also missing were the 65C816's VDA and VPA address bus qualification outputs. Their omission strongly suggested that something had to have been done to prevent the false address bus states that the '816 generates during certain stages of some instructions, especially those with <addr>,X and <addr>,Y addressing.
Interesting point, well worth mentioning. Still, do we conclude that "something had to have been done," or, "it would have been
nice if something had been done"?
If the '816 and '802 are the same basic die, differing only in some of the metalization, it doesn't seem plausible that invalid-address cycles would appear (as we know they do) on the '816 but not on the '802. What seems more likely to me is that the '802 also exhibits the invalid-address cycles, and, since VPA and VDA outputs are absent, this is a hazard with no good solution. IOW, people using the '802 would need to be on guard against the possibility that an invalid address would read from an IO device, which, on some devices, can erroneously alter status.
Odd (and disappointing) as this seems, it doesn't contradict the definition of the '802 as a drop-in replacement for an
NMOS 6502, since the latter exhibits the same hazardous behavior. (Or was the '802 touted as a drop-in replacement for the 'C02 as well?)
cheers,
Jeff
_________________
In 1988 my 65C02 got six new registers and 44 new full-speed instructions!
https://laughtonelectronics.com/Arcana/ ... mmary.html