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PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 3:25 pm 
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auldgeek wrote:
Now thinking I'd like to get back into playing with the 6502 family - I had an Acorn Atom back in the late 70s and a loaner BBC micro in the early 80s. I'm contemplating upgrading to a WDC65c816, 32kx8 CMOS static RAM, and using a 8kx8 NVRAM (STMicroelectronics M48Z08-100PC1?) in place of the EPROM. Glue logic would be updated to decode 32k+(8*4k) and would use phi2 to qualify R/W to generate /OE and /WE. I'd also like to use the existing PCB as much as possible cutting a few tracks and rewiring where necessary. For the 65816 and new glue logic I'm thinking of a small point to point wired daughterboard connected to the 40 pin header conveniently provided on the original board which breaks out the original 6502.


May I also echo the comments of others - please don't hack the board and start a new project.

I cry every time I think about some of the old boards I've changed/salvaged/recycled over the years - e.g. a fully populated and working Junior Computer, and even my own home-made wire-wrap 6502 systems of the early 80's ...

However, noting your location - I'm also in Bonnie Scotland but there is little in the way of make/hack spaces where I am (Borders) if there are any near you now that things are opening up again maybe they can help you with a new system? Do drop me a PM if you want to.

Cheers,

-Gordon

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See my Ruby 6502 and 65816 SBC projects here: https://projects.drogon.net/ruby/


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 26, 2021 4:16 pm 
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(Speaking of meeting up in real life, there's a map with locations of many of the stardot members here. That's a very friendly community, with a lot of 6502 interest.)


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 27, 2021 9:46 pm 
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Garth, BDD, floobydust, 1024MAK, drogon, BigEd ........ many many thanks for all the input and forcing me to give a good deal more thought to what I'd like to do. First things first, I've heard what you say, and the board will be spared further hacking just in case there is some value there (BDD you said "butchering" - have you seen my soldering? :shock:). That said, I'd still be tempted to "improve" the address decoding by not having Ø1 qualify the chip enables for the 65xx devices (BDD, as you said at http://forum.6502.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=511&hilit=139&start=15 "Note that RWB, chip selects and register selects for the 65C21, 65C22 and 65C51 should not be qualified by Ø2—all of these inputs on these devices must be stable before the rise of Ø2."
1024MAK wrote:
So that gets back to the old, but often repeated question: what is your objective?
Is the fun trying to improve an old, existing board?
Write code for or play with a 65C816?
Just get back into 6502 coding?
Get a 6502 board with various I/O to play with interfacing to various external devices?
Something else / none of the above…

Good question :)

My objective is to develop a 65xx assembler and 65xx compiler. This needs a suitable target platform, my criteria include:
1) low cost - I'm Scottish and we don't part with our money easily
2) easily available - hence my desire to reuse the existing SBC
3) 65c816 based - to provide a richer instruction set than the 65(c)02, particularly for compiler code generation

Why develop another assembler and compiler, when there are a number already available?
1) why not - many have developed new hardware, many can develop new software
2) to relive some of the excitement from my student days - learned assembler on a PDP-9, and it was tough going getting it right. Then went on to write a compiler which generated reams of correct assembler, it was like magic (true, the original high level language source also had to be correct)
3) for the fun of it

My original thinking was that "upgrading / hacking / butchering(?)" the board I already had would be low cost, and since many of the support devices were already there, also easily available. But now I'm not so sure. A 65c186 on mouser(UK) is £11, a 65c51 is £7, a 65c22 is £9, which totals ~£30 before adding memory and glue, etc. Have just checked and a W65C265SXB SBC is £43. Lots of discussion topics here related to the W65C265SXB, e.g.http://forum.6502.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3545&hilit=W65C265SXB+vs+W65c816SXB, and a read through of https://github.com/scotws/265SXB-Guide and its difficult to see what's not to like. Mouser also do the W65c816SXB but I've yet to study the details. So maybe an off the shelf WDC board is a better way forward for me, low-ish cost, easily available, 65c816 (family) based, and a means towards achieving my objective. Will think upon this some more :wink:


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 12:08 am 
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auldgeek wrote:
That said, I'd still be tempted to "improve" the address decoding by not having Ø1 qualify the chip enables for the 65xx devices

Sorry for not speaking up sooner, auldgeek, but you've had a misunderstanding regarding this matter. Your original comment about Ø1 prompted me to look at the schematic, and I found that Ø1 is fed to one of the active low inputs of the '138 decoder. In other words, the decoder (and the devices it drives) get enabled during the time when Ø1 is low... which is substantially the same as saying it is enabled during the time when Ø2 is high. I wouldn't worry about "improving" this arrangement.

Glad you're not gonna butcher the board... not because of resale value, but because I fear that effective '816 mods might end up being rather a mess. I would encourage you to make the mods if I thought they could be elegantly done. But I fear that's not the case.

Installing a 65C02 would be a tidier upgrade. And, if that's insufficiently ambitious, maybe you should see if you can lay hands on a 65C802. 8)

-- Jeff

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PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 1:58 am 
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auldgeek wrote:
My objective is to develop a 65xx assembler and 65xx compiler. This needs a suitable target platform, my criteria include:
1) low cost - I'm Scottish and we don't part with our money easily

That brings to mind an old joke about who invented the limbo. :D

Quote:
2) easily available - hence my desire to reuse the existing SBC
3) 65c816 based - to provide a richer instruction set than the 65(c)02, particularly for compiler code generation

Those two criteria are somewhat mutually exclusive. Whereas the 65C02 is a drop-in replacement (or almost drop-in with WDC parts) for the NMOS 6502, the same can't be said about the 65C816. You need to understand that during Ø2 low, the 816 emits the A16-A23 address bits on the data bus, which means the 816 is driving the data bus during Ø2 low, even though the instruction being executed may a read operation (RWB high). Such behavior wouldn't happen with a 65(C)02, so your unit's circuitry as it presently exists might experience severe data bus contention right after the rise of Ø2.

In an 816 circuit, either the data bus must be isolated from the MPU with a transceiver during Ø2 low, or the /OE and /WE inputs on all non-65xx hardware must be fully qualified with Ø2—or both if you are cautious. Doing so brings you right back to the prospect of butchering the board.

Dr Jefyll wrote:
...maybe you should see if you can lay hands on a 65C802.

Jeff read my mind. :D With the 65C802 you get the instruction set of the 65C816, including 16-bit registers, movable direct page, etc., but the pinout and electrical behavior of the 65C02.

Quote:
My original thinking was that "upgrading / hacking / butchering(?)" the board I already had would be low cost, and since many of the support devices were already there, also easily available. But now I'm not so sure. A 65c186 on mouser(UK) is £11, a 65c51 is £7, a 65c22 is £9, which totals ~£30 before adding memory and glue, etc. Have just checked and a W65C265SXB SBC is £43. Lots of discussion topics here related to the W65C265SXB, e.g.http://forum.6502.org/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=3545&hilit=W65C265SXB+vs+W65c816SXB, and a read through of https://github.com/scotws/265SXB-Guide and its difficult to see what's not to like.

The SXB boards are certainly options. However, you'll definitely learn more if you design and build it from scratch.

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PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 5:22 pm 
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Dr Jefyll wrote:
Sorry for not speaking up sooner, auldgeek, but you've had a misunderstanding regarding this matter. Your original comment about Ø1 prompted me to look at the schematic, and I found that Ø1 is fed to one of the active low inputs of the '138 decoder. In other words, the decoder (and the devices it drives) get enabled during the time when Ø1 is low... which is substantially the same as saying it is enabled during the time when Ø2 is high. I wouldn't worry about "improving" this arrangement.
No need to apologise, its myself who needs to apologise for not being clear :roll:. I was aware that Ø1 was connected to the two active low inputs for the '138, and that that was essentially the same as having the '138 enabled when Ø2 is high. I was simply trying to follow the guidance that chip enables for 65xx devices should not be qualified by "the clock" as the devices (6522 and 6551) have their own Ø2 and that device address and chip select should be stable before Ø2 goes high, rather than as Ø2 goes high / Ø1 goes low.
Dr Jefyll wrote:
maybe you should see if you can lay hands on a 65C802
BigDumbDinosaur wrote:
With the 65C802 you get the instruction set of the 65C816, including 16-bit registers, movable direct page, etc., but the pinout and electrical behavior of the 65C02.
Very true, but seems like 65C802 are like the proverbial hens' teeth!

BigDumbDinosaur wrote:
The SXB boards are certainly options. However, you'll definitely learn more if you design and build it from scratch.
Well I've taken the plunge and ordered one of Mouser's two in stock W65C265SXBs. For sure I'd definitely learn more about the hardware if I were to design and build an SBC from scratch, but for me, the hardware is a means to an end in providing a target platform for the development of an assembler and compiler (and yes I'd like real hardware I can touch rather than use an emulator). I'm sure I'll learn a lot from doing that and given one's passing years, there's only so much that I can learn and retain now it seems without something else having to be lost to make space :lol:.

Thanks all for sharing so much hardware wisdom ...... I'll see how I get on with the W65C265SXB. I anticipate the Programming section will see me seeking further help in the not too distant future.


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PostPosted: Mon Jun 28, 2021 5:35 pm 
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> ...for me, the hardware is a means to an end in providing a target platform for the development of an assembler and compiler (and yes I'd like real hardware I can touch rather than use an emulator). I'm sure I'll learn a lot from doing that...

Always good to have a sense of what it is you're after, and how to get there! (We're all different, and each project represents different trade-offs.)


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PostPosted: Tue Jun 29, 2021 1:09 am 
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auldgeek wrote:
Dr Jefyll wrote:
maybe you should see if you can lay hands on a 65C802
BigDumbDinosaur wrote:
With the 65C802 you get the instruction set of the 65C816, including 16-bit registers, movable direct page, etc., but the pinout and electrical behavior of the 65C02.

Very true, but seems like 65C802 are like the proverbial hens' teeth!

That they are.

Years ago, I was working on a firmware project for a terminal server powered by a 65C02. In passing, I suggested to the server's designer that perhaps he should be using the 65C802, since it was pin-compatible, but like a 65C816 from a software perspective. Having the 16-bit registers and all of the stack shenanigans of the 816 would have definitely made the firmware development easier, especially the interrupt handlers (the thing had eight TIA-232 ports, so there were interrupts aplenty).

Try as I might, I couldn't convince him to make the switch. Had I succeeded, I might have ended up with a supply of 802s. :D

Quote:
...given one's passing years, there's only so much that I can learn and retain now it seems without something else having to be lost to make space...

I've tried using that excuse in the past, with little success. Now that I am on the downhill side of my 70s, people are starting to believe it. :shock:

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