The 6502 CPU Powered a Whole Generation!

My grandfather was the CTO of Zilog and raised me. He helped develop the Z80. I am very proud of him. He made life unrealistic for me.. he raised me and spent all his free time with me building PCs and listening to whatever music I found. I’ve never found anyone who holds a candle to him. Not having him around has been tough. Knowing his work won’t ever die in some capacity makes me happy. Not this IC.. just in general with his work. He also helped GE in the 60s build their first main frame. Dude was the most modest man you’d ever meet. Edit: I’m not going to put my families personal info out there, had no idea this comment would get any traction. Believe me if you want or don’t.

Some additional fun facts: - The 6502 is the most sold processor in history, in Q4 2019 alone sold 5 billion (yes, billion) CPU units. With a total around 110 billions sold - The 6502 is the most documented CPU architecure, over 32,500 pages have been written on the CPU architechture, over 3 pages per transistor - the 65c02 overclocking record is 133Mhz, record achieved in 2003\ - There were other, less known micros that ran 6502 processors, Like Digital 65, the SYM and AIM series, the Elektor Junior, the EP Series from Microdigital(Brazil), the Atlacatl(El Salvador, some little usage in Belize) - There have been machines with secon 6502 units, the BBC micro had a 6502 accelerator board, and several KIM upgrade boards had a second CPU only for graphics. -The PCEngine's CPU ran at 7.18 Mhz, so it was faster than the SNES

6502 is a canonical piece of computer hardware, similar to classic game consoles. They will keep getting made, emulated and implemented in FPGA forever.

A few thoughts... 1. I feel this only scratches the surface. I get that this must be a monster project, but I'd watch a 2 hour version of this going into endless detail. Or a 4 part series even. The 6502 strikes me as one of the most important CPUs in history, it deserves ALL the effort and detail. 2. The segment with Bill Mensch was very short, perhaps there wasn't much to add, or he couldn't share anything new, but I wish there had been more. 3. The Z80 needs a similar video, as does the 6800/68000, as does the 8086

At 4:38 that's me closing the VCR lid in the video "VHS VCRs Revisited" ... Big fan and honored to be mentioned/shown in an 8-bit-guy video! (First programming experience was BASIC on the Apple //e on a 6502 ...)

My first computer was in college in 1978: the MEK6800D2 development kit. I programmed a prototype for an automotive MPG display and a Times Square marquee, each in 512 bytes. Programming was all in assembly and hexadecimal. I would measure the frequency of the odometer and fuel sensor, divide distance pulses per second by fuel pulses per second and converting that to MPG units all using bit shifting. Storage was Kansas City standard audio tapes. My productivity improved immensely when I learned how to use the 6800 assembler on the university mainframe. I was unaware of the history of the 6502 and its connection to the 6800 at the time. It is great to hear from the people like Bill Mensch, who were hands on with some these things that are now household words. Thousands of pacemaker users are happy to know they are using some of the most tried and true processors there is.

I absolutely love this kind of content from the 8-bit guy. I've always struggled with understanding how these IC's work but seem to always come away with a much clearer understanding after I watch. Thank you very much David.

David please post that whole interview/chat. Please

I first programmed the 6502 on a synthesizer in 1979. A small music company in Oklahoma City called PAiA Electronics (still in business!) used a 6502 for computer control of a modular synthesizer in 1970's. John Simonton (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Simonton ) was the designer. A fun fact is Larry Fast of Synergy used the Apple II to play some of Simonton's software for the PAiA platform. Fast played with Peter Gabriel and relied on Simonton for tour support on the first tour through Texas in 1977. So many electronic music performers are very familiar with the Rockwell 6502.

Ben Eater has a very good video on the 6502, explaining all the decoding logic and stuff.

This was a great video, thanks for going the extra mile and even interview one of its creators.

Thanks so much for the informative videos. Your channel inspired me to transition into IT. Two years later, I’m working full time in the industry and couldn’t be happier! Your channel is the best.

Great video! Fun fact: The 6502 is essentially a simplified Motorola 6800 implemented using NMOS with a different pinout and a slightly modified instruction set. That's because most of its engineers came from the Motorola 6800 team!

I have been a subscriber for a couple of years and come here every so often when I'm on Youtube . I have many other channels that I watch for different topics but I always enjoy spending time here as in this video. I remember all the hardware that used the 6502 back then so it's like a trip down memory lane. You put your videos together in such a way that makes them very enjoyable to watch and this one is no exception. Thanks a lot for this and please keep giving us the great content that you have been providing.

Hello David. Since I am so broke, I can't really afford Patreon, so this is the only place I can say it, but I wanted to express my deep thankfulness for you, LGR, and Techmoan changing my life. I have really wanted to meet you all, and get to know you a little better, and maybe send you something from the goodness of my heart, just to say thanks for getting me to where I am now. I am a sixteen-year-old nerd who from you three got really interested in old tech and began collecting old software, computers, typewriters, hi-fi equipment, etc. At this time I am now thinking about making my first video, but I haven't thought about it. I wanted to come on here and tell you guys I love all of you. I love watching your videos and learning new things. Always learning new things and weirding out teachers at school because they dont expect someone like me talking about these. I am talking about things they grew up with (lol)! And it makes me happy that I am now so interested in something I have spent literal years to dive into. Sounds weird to say but I enjoy growing up with you and the other two's videos. It makes me proud. Anyway, that's all I have right now. Thank you! ❤📼💾

David, this video was AWESOME I learnd soo much, as always thanks a ton 🙏 from the guns to the keys and cpus the sheer qualify of you videos is admirable! Thanks!

Thank you! This was one of the most interesting 8-Bit Guy videos I watched in a long time. The only thing is that it kind of left me longing for more. Also, I expected a bit more of the Bill Mensch interview. I appreciate the effort that goes into making a video like this, but if it was up to me it could be at least twice as long without being boring. Would love to see more of this!

You got tantalising close to giving away a key reason why the 6502 was so popular, and that's that it leaves the bus available for video half the time in a predictable way. By luck (or judgement?) one clock cycle equalled one character time on the CRT, so one half of the cycle the CPU guzzled data, and the other half was left to video. Essentially it gave way to an early form of DMA. This wouldn't work on a Z80 as it doesn't have a predictable bus, so instead you have to implement other segregated ways for video.

@The8-BitGuy Thank you for doing this one! It was really very informative!

@The8BitGuy You do an excellent job on these computer tech explainers. You provide the best quality videos of this type on YouTube. Great job buddy!