> real available hardware
Last I checked the 65C02 was still being manufactured and sold.
It can also at a blazing 14 MHz.
Last I checked the 65C02 was still being manufactured and sold.
It can also at a blazing 14 MHz.
A RISC-V CH32V003 32 bit processor with 2k RAM and 16k of flash running at 48 MHz costs $0.10 for an 8 pin package (6 available I/O pins) or $0.20 for the 20 pin package. Once programmed, it needs only electricity between 2.8V and 5.5V to be applied to start running.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005036714708.html
You can get it on a ready-made board or kit for as little as $1.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfXWs4CJuY0
https://www.olimex.com/Products/Retro-Computers/RVPC/open-so...
The recommended dev board, with a USB programmer/debugger interface for your PC, plus 5 of the 20 pin chips, costs $8.35 about the same as a bare 65C02 chip.
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005004895791296.html
You can make your own cool shit like this, which uses the $0.10 8 pin chip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1W7Z0BodhWk
It's as easy to learn the instructions of as a 6502 -- there are fewer of them! -- and far easier to write useful code for.
MUCH easier to learn than a 68000, and no more difficult to use. TBH the A and D register split always annoyed the hell out of me in early Mac days.
If you have a memory-mapped frame buffer, you can write a single byte to it if you need a status checkpoint or tracking a variable. If you have a keyboard, you can probably read its buffer or use it for triggers.
Maybe modern debugging environments and tools make it easier, but I tend to think of my university assembly language class which featured original Intel SDK-86 boards with LEDs and hex keypads to interact with.
There are tutorials on youtube for it as well, such as Ben Eater's tutorial.
The *only* advantage the 6502 has is the exposed and non-multiplexed address and data busses, which you can single-step and examine with an Arduino or something.
The whole setup is going to cost you the thick end of $100.
But you can do that just as easily in an emulator.
And meanwhile with RISC-V you can get an ESP32-C3 board with 400k RAM for a dollar or two, or the 1 GHz 64 MB RAM 64 bit Linux Milk-V Duo for $5. And if you wish, run exactly the same programs on a $2500 64 core 128 GB RAM Pioneer. And bunches of $10, $30, $70, $100, $200 boards (and now $400 laptops) in between.
Only ARM gives you similar breadth, but the instruction sets of a Cortex-M0 and M4 Mac are so different they might as well be from different companies.
OTOH, the Z80 is better for this, because you can at least get CP/M up and running with a minimum of trouble.
True but I've always found that there was a special 'charm' to these old CPUs because you have to build the circuit you described as a bare minimum, which is not difficult and makes you learn a range of skills.