Disclaimer: I have no direct information from WDC, basically only this forum.

However, frankly, I think the terbium is dead. Not enough requests for it. And maybe lacking some crucial features (like multiplication) to be a viable competitor to the ARM. And to compete with the ATMega, there should have been more controller-like packages.

Unfortunately it has kept many people just looking at it like a deer in the headlights. Only now there have been attempts to go beyond 8/16 bits, be it 65org32, or my 65k core

André

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Author of the GeckOS multitasking operating system, the usb65 stack, designer of the Micro-PET and many more 6502 content: http://6502.org/users/andre/

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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?

I'd have to agree with André. If WDC truly wanted to get this product out there they would already have done so. The reality is the 65T32's need to preserve 8 and 16 bit mode backward compatibility is a downside and probably complicated the design to where Bill Mensch—who will be 67 this year and hence reaching the tail end of his illustrious career—decided to scrap it. WDC is doing fine with the current MPUs and Mr. Mensch is making a comfortable living from his work, so why expend design time and effort on something that will probably not see any adoption in the embedded market.

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

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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?

I suspect the 65C832 died because it was beaten into production by other 32-bit chips with far better performance.

Given that most people use C for 16 and 32 bit applications (rather than assembler) the backwards compatible features of the chip aren't that important to most target users. Once they've taken the hit of re-coding into C they have a more portable code base they can more easily port to any brand of microcontroller.

It would have been an interesting upgrade to a BBC, Commodore or Apple.

I've been meaning to have a go coding one in VHDL but I don't have the time right now.

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Andrew Jacobs
6502 & PIC Stuff - http://www.obelisk.me.uk/
Cross-Platform 6502/65C02/65816 Macro Assembler - http://www.obelisk.me.uk/dev65/
Open Source Projects - https://github.com/andrew-jacobs

The 65T32's draft data sheet listed "E8" and "E16" compatibility modes that respectively emulated the 65C02 and 65C816. A new instruction, XFE, would have been used for switching into E16 mode. The problem was the entire opcode matrix was already spoken for and there wasn't any room for XFE.

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

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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?

XFE might have been implemented as a co-processor instruction, with the WDM opcode or by having XCE adjust E16 and E8 when in 32 or 16 bit mode.

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Andrew Jacobs
6502 & PIC Stuff - http://www.obelisk.me.uk/
Cross-Platform 6502/65C02/65816 Macro Assembler - http://www.obelisk.me.uk/dev65/
Open Source Projects - https://github.com/andrew-jacobs

Mensch's Wikipedia article says this, dunno if the year is also tied to the upcoming decisions or not.

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WFDis Interactive 6502 Disassembler
AcheronVM: A Reconfigurable 16-bit Virtual CPU for the 6502 Microprocessor

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

Were there any datasheets or other publications issued that can be found on the net? I have searched but didn't find anything.

Even if Mensch had not decided never to make Terbium it would nevertheless be interesting and most likely instructional to see how he envisaged a 32-bit design, considering the sheer elegance of the 6502 design. In my experience, if something is right it is often also elegant, looks right and feels right. And vice versa. And perhaps it could inspire SWEET32.

In aircraft design you have one such example: SR-71. And it flies every bit as fast as you can imagine when you see it on the ground.

This is all I've ever found:
viewtopic.php?p=18872#p18872

(The other frequently linked file, 65xxx.txt, can now be found here but it says little about Terbium)

The thing leaks JP-7 all over the place until its skin gets hot enough at speed to expand and seal. I wouldn't quite call that elegant.

I've noticed in many things that if you want to increase performance, you've got to increase complexity. When simple elegance emerges, though, it's a wonderful but rare thing.

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WFDis Interactive 6502 Disassembler
AcheronVM: A Reconfigurable 16-bit Virtual CPU for the 6502 Microprocessor

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x86?  We ain't got no x86.  We don't NEED no stinking x86!

Oh but surely it is. It solves the problem where it is a problem, not on the ground where it is not a problem. This is an example of thinking outside the box, putting it on fire and kicking it into the corner. Kelly Johnson excelled in this.
Agreed. Which is why I would like to see the Terbium become real.

Back in the day it was said that ARM was inspired by the philosophy of 6502, and only now is ARM being extended into 64 bit. Clearly there is still room for the skilled designer.