A dis-integrated circuit project to make a complete, working transistor-scale replica of the classic MOS 6502 microprocessor.
This is sorcery – and art.
A dis-integrated circuit project to make a complete, working transistor-scale replica of the classic MOS 6502 microprocessor.
This is sorcery – and art.
So I can mount it on my living room wall, that would be epic.
I agree, complete art!
This would look great in glass top coffee table.
Or in a glass case on the wall running a digital clock, preferably in binary…most epic!
I am speechless! That is some project.
Yes, it really is something! The LEDs are a nice touch also, so you watch it work.
been following this for a while, very impressive…
just for the pedants shouldn’t it be de-integrated ?
That is awesome
Having started out on the C64 & Apple ][, I unequivocally agree!
While the specifically addressed the case of the Apple II, I wonder if it would be possible to modify a vintage computer to operate off of the MOnSter 6502 instead of a MOS6502? It would be an amazing museum exhibit if they can demonstrate a working CPU in a computer that was actually on the market.
Short of something like the KIM-1, or AIM-65, probably not. Just about anything with video generation circuitry is going to need to share a common clock multiplier with the CPU. 60KHz (max) isn’t going to do that.
The exception would be video hardware that had it’s own memory and communicated over a bus. The TMS9918 — the VDP in the TI 99/4A — would probably work, but I don’t believe there were any 6502 systems of that vintage that used it.
jockm,
You could probably connect an active adapter with a microcontroller or fpga in between the slow CPU output and faster video scanline requirements. It could be considered cheating, but at least it should work and most people looking at it on display wouldn’t really care about the adapter.
It was nice seeing BASIC run on it, however. Pretty snappy for 60KHz.
It begs the question if the video is clocked properly (i.e. the CPU get the 60K clock, while the rest get their normal clock), would it work in, say, an Apple. I think it would be problematic in an Atari, the ANTIC could be pretty chatty in terms of interrupts and such.
I wonder how much power it uses, and I wonder if it’s an electromagnetic white noise generator of any impact. My TV used to just snow up as soon as I powered up my KIM-1 board back in the day.
The kim-1 was basically a radio antenna that could do computations. I have fond memories of that machine.
As for interfacing with an ANTIC, there is just no way a 60Hz system could keep up with it’s requirements.
There are VDPs that you could interface with, but none of them were in common 6502 systems of the era
It should be possible… with some BIOS changes. Like the Atari 800 – some timing is done via software loops… those would need to be altered. At least the hardware doesn’t depend on any weird timing issues. The main DMA controller asserts a wait line to the 6502 when it fetches data.
The primary thing you’d have to be VERY careful about is how much time you spend in interrupt handlers. For example, most computers do a certain amount of work for the OS in the vertical blank – updating the display registers, updating the inputs, etc. At a mere 60 kHz, there’s only a few hundred instructions you can do during the vertical blank before using up ALL the CPU time. You’d really need to drop the interrupt frequency to avoid this, which has its own complications.
As I recall: the first issue of the UK magazine “Personal Computer World” had a build your own processor not entirely dissimilar to this. That processor was staggeringly crude by almost any standard but functional apparently.
It was around the time the Motorola 6800 started to arrive here, and before the Rockwell 6502 appeared, so approximately 1977.
Any one else feel old?
But a clear attempt at ripping the sorcery veil of a great engineering achievement, the 6502.
Worth every penny. Lyceums should buy. Has to be accompanied with a library [paper and acrylic rounds, please].
Making 5K “manufacturing variances” dance along, a hell in itself
Choreographic Art.
Putting this kind of works -the engineering part- along with ENIAC.
Don’t plug next to the laser printer ;D
Terrific! This monster project is lovable from any angle, even for a software-only specialist.
The effort / time / money spent on this thing… Speechless.
Shipped with few-cycles’ games oblige
[And Yes, that video multiplier also].
And Bender.
http://spectrum.ieee.org/semiconductors/processors/the-truth-about-…