Introduce yourself

[BigEd]

Welcome!
André and I posted some links to some current minimal projects at https://plus.google.com/u/0/10898429046 ... 6vq7vAco6S, but see also
http://6502.org/homebuilt and http://6502.org/mini-projects/ on this site.

[Dajgoro]

Welcome to the forum!

Quote:

There's some very good links at the top of this thread, but for my 6502 playings I'd like to start with some smaller, more approachable little projects, rather than building a full-on computer. Does that make any sense? If so, what sort of projects might be possible?

The simplest 6502 computer contains a CPU, 6532(RIOT, RAM+I/O+Timer chip), ROM, inverter (for address decoding), and a oscillator (can be built from inverters).
That is the simplest working computer that you can build, and it is only 4 chips.

Also if you leave some free space, you can later expand such a contraption in a more usable system.

[granati]

Hello everyone,
i'm from Italy so sorry for my bad english.
My interest for 6502 family starting with VIC20 and after with an (infamous) PLUSA/4. My job is in industrial electronics (design hw and some sw for process control) and recently i spent a bit of time for development of a 65C02 and 65C816 bus-oriented computer. I design with a very old CAD (Orcad 386) that run in a DOS machine, a sw that i buy in 1973 but still valid and professional.

Marco Granati

[Tor]

Welcome to the forum Marco, it sounds like you will fit right in here. Don't worry about your English, it's fine and many of us frequenting the forum aren't native English speakers either. And some of us can even read Italian!

-Tor

[BigDumbDinosaur]

Tor wrote:

Welcome to the forum Marco, it sounds like you will fit right in here. Don't worry about your English, it's fine and many of us frequenting the forum aren't native English speakers either. And some of us can even read Italian!

-Tor

And then there are guys like me who are native English speakers but are really dumb...

[Dajgoro]

granati wrote:

Hello everyone

Ben venuto sul 6502.org forum.

Quote:

And some of us can even read Italian!

And speak.

[nyef]

Hello, all.

I'm a programmer who got his start programming on the Apple ][ and the Vic-20 about twenty-seven years ago (has it really been so long?). In the past I've worked on 6502-derived embedded systems in assembly language and written a simulator for the NES and Apple ][ systems (among others). I've recently started getting into trying (and failing) to build my own hardware. I've been lurking here for a little while now, and figured that now was probably a good time to make an account (and possibly ask for advice where I'm having trouble with my own projects, but that would be another thread).

-- Alastair Bridgewater

[BigDumbDinosaur]

nyef wrote:

Hello, all.

I'm a programmer who got his start programming on the Apple ][ and the Vic-20 about twenty-seven years ago (has it really been so long?). In the past I've worked on 6502-derived embedded systems in assembly language and written a simulator for the NES and Apple ][ systems (among others). I've recently started getting into trying (and failing) to build my own hardware. I've been lurking here for a little while now, and figured that now was probably a good time to make an account (and possibly ask for advice where I'm having trouble with my own projects, but that would be another thread).

-- Alastair Bridgewater

Welcome. You've come to the right place if you have questions. We (almost) always have answers and opinions.

[barrym95838]

Hello, all!

I've been lurking here for quite some time as well. I went to high school in the early 80s, and was exposed to TRS-80s and Apple ][s, as well as a PDP-8A. I owned a ][+ and a C64, and self-taught myself 6502 assembly language in my quest for speed. Most of my projects were small and experimental, like hi-res character generator routines that could do bold, inverse, underline, and/or italic, and a few game mock-ups. I spent many hundreds of hours typing in BASIC programs from Softside and Byte, and many more hundreds of hours disassembling and studying ML games and utilities. Recently (and with Frank's approval), I have translated Frank McCoy's VTL-2 interpreter from the 6800 to the 6502. I have Apple 1 and Apple ][ versions available free for the asking: both are less than 900 bytes, and allow entering, listing, and executing VTL-2 programs. I couldn't get them trimmed down to 768 bytes like the 6800, due the lack of 16-bit registers in the 6502, but I'm thinking about trying a 65c802 version that could have a decent chance ...

Recently, I have renewed my interest in the old processors (6502, 8008, 6800, PDP-8) through emulators, and have three unfinished "from-scratch" microprocessor designs for which I have been writing emulators. There's a 24-bit design that is almost complete, a 10-bit decimal design that is still in the early stages, and my own version of the 65Org32, which I am almost ready to share.

My first question for the group: Are there any free CPU design aids similar to CPUSim, but with slightly more flexible decode functionality? I think that I can make them work with CPUSim with some effort, but I would appreciate any info you guys could offer regarding the usability of any others that might exist, and the possibility of answering a few questions regarding the use of register array indices in CPUSim ... I can't quite get what I need from the simple Wombat example and on-line help.

Thank you all for a great web-site and community! enso noticed me the same day that I joined, and sent me a friendly welcome.

Mike

[Edit: Thanks to BigEd for gently setting me straight WRT drifting off-topic, and thanks to ttlworks for his kind PM offers of support.]

[BigEd]

Welcome, Mike and Alastair!
Mike: your VTL-2 offer and your question about CPUSim would both make good posts in other sections of the forum.
Cheers
Ed

[Aslak3]

Hi all,

My interest in computers started with the Spectrum, before moving onto Amigas, and more lately, Linux. My day job is as a perl/C/network dev.

For the last 20 years I've been wanting to combine my interest in electronics with computing to build a working 8 bit micro. About 4 months ago I finally started. The result is a mostly working 6809 breadboard computer, with a UART and an I2C bus (modern!) , with attached RTC, EEPROM etc. In the future I hope to add sound, perhaps some kind of display, and some kind of mass storage interface. I know this is a 6502 forum... I hope posting talking about other 8 bit CPUs is ok. Anything but x86, right? . Before starting on the 6809 machine, I made an EEPROM programmer out of a ATMEGA8 and some other parts. I'm quite pleased with this and am sure other people could make a programmer to the same design for use in their own projects. The 6809 project is a software one as well, with a simple monitor written by me. Learning 6809 asm has been a fun experience in and of itself. Eventually it would be nice to write some simple games.

If there are any forum members with familiarity with the 6809 it would be great to hear from you.

I have a blog, which I post fairly infrequently on - http://aslak3.blogspot.co.uk - if anyone is interested in following my exploits.

Am really pleased to find folks who have a similar interest.

Lawrence

[ElEctric_EyE]

Aslak3 wrote:

Hi all... I hope posting talking about other 8 bit CPUs is ok. Anything but x86, right? .

Welcome! I think you have that right.

[Dr Jefyll]

Welcome, Lawrence! Yes, there are folks here who are familiar with the 6809 and its super-power endowed relative, the 6309 (see the Wikipedia article here). Although 6309's are no longer in production, I recall reading somewhere recently that these chips are easy to obtain on EBay. I think it's fair to say the 6309 is drastically superior (faster clock rates, fewer clocks per instruction, CMOS process, much more powerful programming model ), but the 6809 is still a darn nice chip.

Here in the "Introduce Yourself" section is not a good place to start prolonged discussions, but let me refer you to anycpu.org and to some recent discussion about it here on this forum. Also here's a link to a SBC of my own that uses two 6809's.

Quote:

Learning 6809 asm has been a fun experience in and of itself. Eventually it would be nice to write some simple games.

Yeah, 6809 asm is pretty cool. Still, it may be cumbersome to write an entire game using asm only. If you haven't already, I suggest you look into using Forth. The 6809/6309 model is rich in addressing modes, and features some stack addressing modes that offer real performance enhancements for Forth (which is already fast in the first place). Many of our 6502.org members have experience with Forth, and we'd be happy to guide or advise you.

cheers,
Jeff

[James_Parsons]

Apparently everyone thinks I'm a spambot. So I was told to reply here. I am a 15 year old kid. I am NOT a spambot. I prefer 70's and 80's computers over modern ones (people call me weird for that ). I think the 6502 has an amazing architecture with simplicity and power. Also the manual garth mentioned to me is gone :O I have done high level programming and some x86 assembly. I do plan within the next 3 years to build an SBC with both the 6502 and the 6800. Again I am not a spambot so please, please don't ban me. I hope sometime to become part of the community like GARTHWISON BigDumbDinosaur and others who have numerous links on the site and seem to know people

[ElEctric_EyE]

LOL. I pegged you at a teenager! Anyway, welcome James. You seem very intelligent.
We can all help you build your own SBC! Very cool intro.