With hindsight one can consider the 6502 to be the only 8-bit RISC CPU
It had a reduced number of registers compared with the 6800 and this and
other logic-reduction simplified the design so it could execute code a lot
more efficiently as compared with the 6800. Also the 256-bytes Zero-page
could be regarded as an (extended) RISC-like registerset of the CPU.
I remember a magazine (BYTE?) describe the 6502 as a true RISC-chip
but I don't thing the designers had RISC-CISC philosofies in their heads
while working it out.
Only 6809 bas a "better" chip but that should have been a true 16-bit design
It came way to late to make a large impact. Only the COCO used it in a
homecomputer.
Sipke de Wal
----------------------------------------------------------------------
http://xgistor.ath.cx
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
----- Original Message -----
From: ajp166 <ajp166_at_bellatlantic.net>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Friday, May 04, 2001 1:03 PM
Subject: Re: How many transistors in the 6502 processor?
> From: Brian Chase <bdc_at_world.std.com>
>
> >Does anyone know how many transistors made up the 6502? These days with
> >Intel's boasting of the number of transistors their latest processors
> use,
> >it'd be interesting to know what we used to get by using. What, it
> can't
> >have been more than a few thousand, right?
>
>
> Memory says it was one of the lower transistor count cpus, very efficient
> design.
>
> >And then it'd be rather fun to implement your very own 6502 using 74*
> >series logic chips.
>
>
> I'd bet it would be fairly high chip count. IT would be interesting to
> see how fast
> you cound make it go.
>
> Allison
>
>
Received on Fri May 04 2001 - 09:50:46 BST