Re: [stella] Maze Craze and 650x

Subject: Re: [stella] Maze Craze and 650x
From: Paul Slocum <paul-slocum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Mon, 20 Aug 2001 02:48:31 -0500
Manuel:

Thanks. I may disassemble part of the Maze Craze kernal and I'll post it somewhere if I do.

I'm gonna release the source for Outlaw soon, but actually there's
not too much of interest in there, except some surprising use of
BIT + BVC/BVS combinations and maybe the PF/Missile collision
detection/calculation, in case someone is trying a new
Breakout/Arkanoid type'o'game :-)

Is anyone working on Arkanoid? I was thinking that might be my next project if I ever get this project off the ground.


Glenn Saunders:
Do companies like these really charge tons for what is, in the end, a 20+ year old chip design?

I wonder what the actual figures are, and how many devices are currently employing the 65C02 core. I would suspect not too many, vs. let's say, low-cost 32-bit RISC processors that aren't as confining as the 6502 is.

For my senior project last semester, I convinced my professor to let me build a 128 game menu-driven Atari 2600 multicart. To make my proposal more convincing, I tried to find some modern devices that still use 650x technology. I found a company on the web (http://westerndesigncenter.com) and e-mailed them. Here's part of the response I got from a Bill Mensch <mensch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:


----------------------
Hi Paul,
I am the inventor of the 6502, 65c02 and 65c816. We have licensed this technology to more than 60 companies throughout the world. This technology is used in System-on-a-Chip (SoC) ASIC's and is on of the highest volume microprocessors of all time. This architecture is sometimes referred as the first RISC processor and is thought of as a "timeless". We would expect usage for many years to come...


...We have been licensing the 65c02 since 1981 and the 65c816 since 1984.
Some systems that used these microprocessors are cable TV set top boxes, German automobile dash board controllers, Rockwell modems, pacemakers, defibrillators, pagers, fax machines, PDA's, telephones,etc. and Nintendo game machines...


...I hope this helps. I'm pleased that you recognize this processors importance to the Information Technology (IT) industry. Did you know that the 6502 was the first of only 7 microprocessors honored and the Comdex Trade Show in 1996 as having made the most impact on the IT industry?
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