6502.org

From the front page of my site, for the person who is satisfied with 1MHz NMOS:

• And: I have 110 6512 microprocessors I bought in the mid-1980's for a project I never went through with, to make an inexpensive SBC for education, hobby, and light industrial applications. The 6512 is a 6502 whose Φ1 pin is an input rather than an output, and you would normally drive the Φ0 and Φ1 inputs using both the Q and Q\ outputs of a 74xx74. The 6512 also has a DBE (data bus enable) pin (pin 36). The data sheet says, "This input allows external control of the three-state data output buffers and will enable the microprocessor bus driver when in the high state. In normal operation DBE would be driven by the Φ2 clock, thus allowing data output from microprocessor only during Φ2." It also says this external-clock version is "geared for the multi-processor system applications where maximum timing control is mandatory." (It can be used in a single-processor system too though of course.) Make me a reasonable offer for some or all of them. I could sell them one at a time, but I prefer not to.

shipping from Southern California

If you are new to this hobby / microprocessor systems, you may not know the details that experienced members here are aware of regarding which suppliers are trusted and which are lottery sellers.

I strongly suspect that a lot of Chinese sellers are purely resellers. As you can buy items from two different sellers, and end up with two identical items with the same stock code sticker on it. Different sellers using the same photos and very similar descriptions reinforce this perception. However, not everything is exactly the same as Chinese manufacturers copy products from other Chinese manufacturers.

With any market, if something proves popular, and there is a cheap way of supplying this demand, you will get substandard items being sold. So obtaining pulls, cleaning the pins, maybe re-tinning, cleaning off the old markings and applying new markings for an item that the market wants is bound to happen.

The companies that are doing the cleaning and remarking may not even know the full technical details of the differences between the different chips that they are remarking. As far as they are concerned, they are just old parts that can be cleaned and remarked and sold ‘as new’, hence the recent date codes.

I suspect at least some of the resellers may not know the history of the items that they are selling. They are just selling what their competition are selling...

The other point that I want to raise, is that remarked chips or maybe substandard parts also find their way into the DIY electronic kits that these resellers also sell.

It is possible that some of the ‘current production’ parts that are available from the same resellers are also either remarked chips, substandard parts, or locally produced, but unlicensed copies, and with no way of telling until the buyer tests them himself/herself whether they meet the specifications of the real parts available from trusted official distributors.

Mark

I just tried to place an order for a 65c02 at Jameco: $6.95+$5 (b/c < $15) + 17.99, total $29.94.

This is better than it used to be - it's again possible to select "USPS First Class International" (no insurance), there was a time when the only choice was the double-priced next option.

Still, one can see why trying to order genuine chips at low quantities isn't particularly attractive. If I buy, say, five chips, the per-price drops to $10.54, but the total ($52.74) triggers VAT handling, which isn't the worst, it's that this also adds VAT handling charges which is a killer. So one is between a rock and a hard place. Now, where was that eBay link again..

Here you go the bound to be remarked 6502 lottery (not recommended unless you just want it for eye candy)

If something were to be shipped to you and declared as a gift for customs purposes, would VAT still be assessed?