A (very) cheap 65C816 emulator

Topics pertaining to the emulation or simulation of the 65xx microprocessors and their peripheral chips.
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BitWise
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A (very) cheap 65C816 emulator

Post by BitWise »

For sometime now I've been working on a new 65C816 emulator that runs on a cheap ESP32 module. The code base is almost ready to release -- I just have to finish the monitor application (based on my SXB-Hacker) so you can upload code into the RAM for testing instead of having to rebuild the entire thing every time. I'm getting very close.
EM-65C816-ESP32.png
ESP32 modules cost less than £5 (direct from China via ebay) or a little more in online store (like Amazon). My current configuration provides 252K of RAM, and 260K of ROM in the emulated address space. The CPU executes at around 6MHz depending how much I/O you are doing. Currently I provide a virtual UART and 100Hz timer with interrupts. The code could be expanded to access the ESP's other peripherals (including the WiFi, Bluetooth, 2xSPI, more UARTs, I/O pins, etc.).

I suspect the emulation could be made faster but its good enough for now.

ESP32s can produce video and I have reserved some RAM for this purpose in the emulator. Ideally I'd like to generate 800x600 monochrome SVGA. If that proves impossible then something lower resolution and with colour is possible.
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
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BigEd
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Re: A (very) cheap 65C816 emulator

Post by BigEd »

I like it!
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BitWise
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Re: A (very) cheap 65C816 emulator

Post by BitWise »

Ok. Its reached the point that other people can have a play. Its all here:

https://github.com/andrew-jacobs/em-65c816-esp32
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
scotws
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Re: A (very) cheap 65C816 emulator

Post by scotws »

Cool! The interrupts are going to be really useful because they are just majorly hard in software ...
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